". . » 3Ut  tfteerfulttedd  afcrnmtr  tottft  i 


on  0ur  i)udiiTrdo  all 
tftfd  trai>. . .  /' 

—  Robert  "liouis 


/U~- 


A   BRIEF    OUTLINE    OF   THE 

BUSINESS   OF  WILLIAM 

WHITMAN   &f  CO. 


BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  -  CHICAGO  •  ST.  LOUIS 

PHILADELPHIA  •  CHARLOTTE 

BALTIMORE  -  ATLANTA 


Copyright,  IQIO 
BY  MALCOLM  D.  WHITMAN 


THE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,   U.S.A. 


Err 

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in 


HAND    SPINNING 

From  a  Fourteenth  Century  MS.  in  the  British  Museum 


PREFACE 

Vr  E  have  had  occasion  during  the 
past  year  to  prepare  an  outline  of  the 
scope  and  organization  of  our  business. 
In  the  course  of  the  work  it  occurred  to 
us  that  there  was  some  information  that 
would  be  of  interest  to  our  associates,  to 
our  customers,  and  to  others  who  are 
studying  the  progress  of  textile  manu- 
facture in  this  country. 

We   have  attempted  to  embody  this 
information   in   a    brief  form   in   the 
following  pages. 


LADIES    SPINNING    AND    WEAVING 

From  a  Fifteenth  Century  MS.  in  the  British  Museum 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

WOOL  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES      ...     12 

WOOL  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  WORLD 13 

COTTON  PRODUCING  AREA  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  .      14 

THE  WORLD'S  COTTON  PRODUCTION 15 

THE  PRINCIPAL  COTTONS  .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .    16,  17 

MILLS  REPRESENTED  BY  WILLIAM  WHITMAN  &  Co.      18 

INTRODUCTION 19 

ARLINGTON  MILLS  —  Officers  &  Directors  .'     .     24 

DRESS  GOODS  DEPARTMENT 25 

WORSTED  YARN  DEPARTMENT 33 

WOOL  PRICES,  1900-1910 •     .    38,  39 

THE  WORLD'S  COTTON  MILLS 43 

MANOMET  MILLS  —  Officers  £ff  Directors     ....     44 

COTTON  YARN  DEPARTMENT 45 

PRICES  RAW  COTTON  AND  COTTON  YARNS,  1900-10     52,  53 
NONQUITT  SPINNING  COMPANY — Officers  &  Directors     55 

THE  EDDYSTONE  MANUFACTURING  Co. — Officers  & 
Directors 56 

PRINTED  GOODS  DEPARTMENT 57 

NASHAWENA  MILLS  —  Officers  £ff  Directors      ...     64 
GRAY  GOODS  DEPARTMENT 65 

PRICES  RAW  COTTON  AND  STAPLE  COTTON  FABRICS, 
1906-1910    .     . 66,  67 

NEW  BEDFORD  GROUP  OF  MILLS  REPRESENTED      .  72 

EVOLUTION  OF  THE  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY      .     .  73 

THE  MERCERIZING  PROCESS 83 

IMPROVED  CONDITIONS  IN  MODERN  MILLS     ...  88 

INDEX 91 

9 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Flock  of  Three  Thousand  Sheep     ....    Frontispiece 


PAGE 


Hand  Spinning 6 

Ladies  Spinning  and  Weaving 8 

The  First  Arlington  Mills,  1865 facing  25 

The  Angora  Goat 26 

The  Second  Arlington  Mills,  1867 29 

The  Alpaca,  Peru 30 

Arlington  Mills,  1910 33 

The  First  Manomet  Mill,  1906 45 

Hampton  Cotton  Mills,  1910 46 

Manomet  Mills,  1910 48 

The  First  Nonquitt  Mill,  1908 51 

Nonquitt  Spinning  Company,  1910 55 

The  Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company     ....  56 

Nashawena  Mills,  1910 65 

Nashawena  Mills,  Offices,  and  Power  Plant,  1910      .  69 

Calhoun  Mills,  1909 70 


IO 


1  HE  firm  of  WILLIAM  WHITMAN  & 
COMPANY  and  its  predecessors  have  been 
the  selling  agents  of  the  Arlington  Mills 
from  1887  until  the  present  time.  Mr. 
William  Whitman,  the  senior  member  of 
the  firm,  has  served  as  Treasurer  or 
President  of  the  Arlington  Corporation 
since  1867. 
The  present  members  of  the  firm  are 

WILLIAM  WHITMAN 
WILLIAM   WHITMAN,  JR. 
ARTHUR  T.  BRADLEE 
MALCOLM   D.  WHITMAN 
LOUIS   H.  FITCH 

Mr.  William  Whitman,  Mr.  Bradlee, 
and  Mr.  Fitch  have  their  headquarters  in 
the  home  office  of  the  firm  at  78  Chauncy 
St.,  Boston.  Mr.  William  Whitman,  Jr., 
and  Mr.  Malcolm  D.  Whitman  are  in 
charge  of  the  New  York  Office  of  the  firm 
at  350  Broadway,  New  York  City. 

The  firm  offices  are:  78  Chauncy  St., 
Boston;  350  Broadway,  New  York;  Royal 
Insurance  Building,  Chicago ;  300  Chestnut 
St.,  Philadelphia;  Century  Building,  St. 
Louis;  Maryland  Bank  Building,  Balti- 
more; Equitable  Building,  Atlanta;  201 
South  Tryon  St.,  Charlotte. 


WOOL  PRODUCTION  OF  THE  WORLD 


(From  the  latest  official  returns  and  estimates) 

COUNTRY  WoOL 

POUNDS 

/-United  States 328,110,749 

North     |  British  Provinces 11,210,000 

America}  Mexico 7,000,000 

I  Central  America  and  West  Indies 1,000,000 

Total  North  America ~  347,320,749 

Argentina 392,418,800 

izil 1,130,000 

South        Chile 20,754,000 

America    Peru       •      •     • 9,940,000 

Falkland  Islands 4,324,000 

Uruguay 111,552,760 

All  other  South  America  reported 5,000,000 

Total  South  America 545,119,560 

'United  Kingdom 133,705,074 

Austria  Hungary 41,600,000 

France 78,000,000 

Germany 25,600,000 

Spain 52,000,000 

Europe   ^Portugal 10,000,000 

Greece 14,000,000 

Italy 21,500,000 

Russia  (Europe) 320,000,000 

Turkey  and  Balkan  States 90,500,000 

All  other  Europe 18,000,000 

Total  Europe 804,905,074 

f  British  India 50,000,000 

China 42,253,000 

,  .         I  Russia  (Asiatic) 60,000,000 

Asta       }  Turkey  (Asiatic) 45,000,000 

Persia 12,146,000 

[All  other  Asia  reported 1,000,000 

Total  Asia 210,399,000 

(Algeria 33,184,000 

I  British  South  Africa 89,783,000 

Africa    •<  Tunis 3,735,000 

lAll  other  Africa  reported 13,000,000 

Total  Africa 139,702,000 

.     (Australasia "  756,590,163 

'ama  \  All  other  Oceania  reported      ........ 100,000 

Total  Oceania 756,690,163 

Total  World 2,804,136,546 

World's  production  1895 2,692,986,773 


THE  WORLD'S  COTTON  PRODUCTION 

(From  the  latest  returns  and  estimates) 

The  world's  commercial  crops  in  bales  of  the  uniform  weight 
of  500  Ibs.  net  each. 


COUNTRIES 

1908-09 

1907-08 

1906-07 

1905-06 

1904-05 

United  States 
India  (a) 
Egypt 
Russia 
Brazil,  etc.  (6) 

13,551,890 
3,084,870 
1,246,150 
601,200 
266,197 

11,257,538 
2,486,629 
1,432,469 
711,864 
299,006 

13,306,846 
3,536,086 
1,326,108 
781,760 
446,126 

11,048,000 
2,983,370 
1,152,516 
1,020,456 
476,667 

13,420,440 
2,952,720 
1,244,968 
683,064 
325,928 

TOTAL 

18,750,307 

16,187,506 

19,396,926 

16,681,009 

18,627,120 

(a)  Includes  India's  exports  to  Europe,  America,  Japan,  etc.,  and  mill  con- 
sumption in  India  increased  or  decreased  by  excess  or  loss  of  stock  at  Bombay. 

(fe)  Receipts  into  Europe  from  Brazil,  Smyrna,  Peru,  West  Indies,  etc.,  and 
Japan  and  China  cotton  used  in  Japanese  mills. 

These  figures,  revised  to  December  i,  1909,  from  statistics  fur- 
nished by  the  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle,  show  the 
world's  commercial  cotton  so  far  as  known  from  reliable  data. 
There  is  in  addition  considerable  cotton,  consumed  locally  in  India, 
Brazil,  and  other  countries,  which  does  not  enter  into  commercial 
channels  and  so  cannot  be  determined.  It  is  thought  that  600,000 
bales  are  worked  each  year  on  hand  looms  in  the  homes  of  the 
people  in  India,  and  that  149,000  bales  each  year  are  consumed 
locally  in  Brazil,  but  the  data  as  to  this  local  consumption  are  very 
indefinite.  Little  is  known  also  to-day  of  the  production  and 
consumption  of  cotton  in  China. 

The  world's  cotton  crop  in  running  bales  has  been  estimated  by 
Comtelburo  Limited,  of  London,  as  follows  : 


COUNTRIES 

1908-09 

1907-08 

1906-07 

1905-06 

1904-05 

America 
India 
Egypt 
Brazil,  etc. 

13,829,000 
4,665,000 
910,000 
f3,063,000 

11,582,000 
4,445,000 
965^00 
t2,867,000 

13,550,000 
5,197,000 
926,000 
f2,803,000 

11,320,000 
4,797,000 
798,000 
f2,542,000 

13,557,000 
4,061,000 
843,000 
f2,172,000 

TOTAL 

22,467,000 

19,859,000 

22,476,000 

19,457,000 

20,633,000 

f  Including  all  other  countries.  The  countries  embraced  in  this  list  are  also 
given  by  Comtelburo,  together  with  estimates  of  production  of  each. 

The  estimate  of  Mr.  Alfred  B.  Shepperson  of  the  world's  crops 
in  running  bales  for  1908-09  is  22,287,000  bales.  This  corre- 
sponds closely  with  the  estimate  of  Comtelburo  for  the  same  period. 

The  estimates  in  running  bales  include  under  "  Brazil,  etc."  the 
local  consumption  in  Brazil,  India,  and  other  countries,  and  China's 
rumored  production.  They  are,  therefore,  greater  than  the  first 
estimate  above,  but  the  difference  is  more  apparent  than  real. 

15 


EGYPTIAN   COTTON 

The  entire  importation  of  Egyptian  Cotton  into  the 
United  States,  expressed  in  bales  of  500  Ibs.  net  wt.  for 
the  past  ten  seasons,  ending  August  3ist,  is  as  follows: 


1908-1909 145,361 

1907-1908 126,102 

1906-1907 178,069 

1905-1906 119,890 

1904-1905 110,573 


1903-1904 80,107 

1902-1903 131,799 

1901-1902 166,617 

1900-1901 87,441 

1899-1900  .                    .  122,009 


PERUVIAN   COTTON 

The  entire  importation  of  Peruvian  Cotton  into  the 
United  States,  expressed  in  bales  of  500  Ibs.  net  wt.  for 
ten  seasons,  ending  August  3ist,  is  as  follows: 

1908-1909 12,811 

1907-1908 5,296 

1906-1907 8,900 

1905-1906 6,337 

1904-1905 9,748 


1903-1904 7,462 

1902-1903 9,744 

1901-1902 10,398 

1900-1901  .     .    -.     .     .  9,612 

1899-1900 8,196 


SEA   ISLAND   COTTON 

The  crops  and  movement  of  Sea  Island  Cotton,  expressed 
in  bales  of  500  Ibs.  net  wt.  for  the  past  ten  seasons,  ending 
August  3 ist,  are  as  follows: 


CRQP 

FORE 

IGN  EXPORTS 

AMERI- 

SEASON 

South 

Total 

CON- 

Florida 

Georgia 

Caro- 

Total 

Great 

Conti- 

Ex- 

SUMP- 

lina 

Britain 

nent 

ports 

TlONa 

1908-09- 

33,701 

31,162 

12,138 

77,001 

14,593 

6,052 

20,646 

57,061 

1907-08- 

33,490 

21,606 

10,190 

65,286 

18,198 

7,708 

25,906 

37,374 

1906-07- 

18,729 

19,722 

6,435  1  44,886 

12,16014,231    16,391 

28,881 

1905-06- 

24,302 

58,298 

10,970   93,570 

24,027 

7,382  j  31,410 

63,138 

1904-05- 

30,298 

39,757 

9,675  !  79,730 

24,666 

6,056    30,722 

50,045 

1903-04- 

22,404 

31,476 

7,487  j  61,367 

19,350 

5,706   25,056 

34,862 

1902-03- 

22,149 

49,961 

9,998    82,108 

35.483 

7,782    43,266 

40,419 

1901-02- 

17,058 

38,870 

7,008  <  62,936 

20,338 

5,160    25,498 

34,920 

1900-01- 

19,834 

42,362 

6,695  1  68,891 

21,162 

4,428    25,590 

44,338 

1899-00- 

23,501 

48,295 

6,248  !  78,044 

30,623 

6,406  .  37,029 

39,634 

a  The  column  of  "  American  Consumption  "  in  this  table  includes  burnt  in  the 
United  States. 


In  this  compilation,  the  Sea  Island  bales  (400  Ibs.),  the  Egyptian  bales  (750  Ibs.), 
and  the  Peruvian  bales  (185  Ibs.)  have  all  been  converted  into  bales  of  the  net 
weight  of  500  Ibs.  each. 

16 


THE    PRINCIPAL   COTTONS 


J.  HE  different  kinds  of  cotton  in  general  commercial  use 
in  this  country  may  be  briefly  mentioned.  They  are  Upland 
Cotton,  forming  the  great  bulk  of  cotton  grown  in  the 
United  States ;  Sea  Island  Cotton,  from  our  southeastern 
coast ;  Egyptian  Cotton,  from  the  valley  of  the  Nile ;  and 
Peruvian  Cotton,  from  South  America. 

Of  the  13,800,000  bales  of  Upland  Cotton  produced  last 
season,  we  retained  for  use  in  this  country  but  5,400,000 
bales.  Our  consumption  of  Sea  Island,  Egyptian,  and 
Peruvian  Cotton  is  indicated  in  the  opposite  table. 

Sea  Island  Cotton,  grown  almost  exclusively  in  Florida, 
Georgia,  and  South  Carolina,  is  our  finest  cotton,  having  a 
silky  staple  from  I  y2  inches  to  2^  inches  in  length.  For 
yarns  numbering  over  120,  and  for  the  best  cloths,  Sea  Island 
Cotton  is  indispensable.  It  commands  a  price  from  50  to 
100  per  cent  above  that  of  Egyptian  Cotton. 

Egyptian  Cotton  has  a  strong,  lustrous  staple  I  ^  inches 
to  I  y§  inches  long.  It  is  used  for  purposes  for  which  Upland 
Cotton  would  not  be  suitable,  and  for  which  Sea  Island 
Cotton  is  too  expensive.  It  is  used  extensively  for  fine 
underwear  and  hosiery,  much  of  it  going  into  so-called 
"  Balbriggan  "  goods. 

Peruvian  Cotton,  of  the  kind  imported  into  this  country, 
is  of  the  "  tree  cotton  "  variety  and  has  a  rough,  kinky 
staple.  It  resembles  wool  so  closely  that  it  is  called  "  vege- 
table wool,"  and  can  be  distinguished  from  wool  only  by 
microscopical  examination.  Peruvian  Cotton  is  not  used 
in  cotton  mills,  but  is  manufactured  in  combination  with 
wool  into  certain  grades  of  woolen  fabrics. 


WILLIAM  WHITMAN  gf  CO. 

SOLE  SELLING   AGENTS 
FOR 

Arlington  Mills  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts 

WORSTED  DRESS  GOODS,  WORSTED  TOPS,  WORSTED  YARNS, 
COMBED  COTTON  YARNS,  MERCERIZED  YARNS 

The  Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company  of 

Eddystone,  Pennsylvania 

SIMPSON-EDDYSTONE     PRINTS,    GOBELIN    ART    DRAPERIES, 
PRINTED  COTTON  FABRICS 

Manomet  Mills  of  New  Bedford,  Massachusetts 

COMBED  COTTON  YARNS 

Nashawena  Mills  of  New  Bedford,  Massachusetts 

PLAIN   AND   FANCY   COTTON   FABRICS,   COTTON   AND   SILK    MIX- 
TURES, CONTRACT   SPECIALTIES 

Nonquitt  Spinning  Company  of  New  Bedford, 
Massachusetts 

COMBED  COTTON  YARNS 

and  for  a  number  of  smaller  cotton  cloth  and 
cotton  yarn  mills. 

IN  addition,  William  Whitman  &  Company,  as  mer- 
chants, purchase  outright  and  distribute  the  products 
of  a  large  number  of  other  cotton  mills. 


INTRODUCTION 


W  E  hope  that  this  little  book  may  not  only 
interest  our  customers  and  business  associates,  but 
may  make  them  even  more  familiar  than  they  now 
are  with  the  policy  of  management  and  the  nature 
and  scope  of  our  business  as  a  whole. 

The  successful  development  of  the  business  is 
due  largely  to  the  co-operation  of  our  friends  among 
buyers,  consumers,  and  associates.  If  this  little 
book  will  help  to  promote  that  spirit  of  co-operation 
and  to  spread  its  influence  among  new  friends  and 
associates,  it  will  have  served  its  purpose. 

The  policy  of  the  firm  of  William  Whitman  & 
Company  has  always  been  to  avoid  any  duplication 
or  conflict  of  the  products  of  the  different  manu- 
facturing concerns  which  the  firm  serves  as  exclu- 
sive selling  agent.  The  whole  business  has  been 
organized  and  developed  in  accordance  with  this 
principle.  The  output  of  one  mill  is  not  brought 
into  competition  with  that  of  another.  The  various 
manufacturing  activities  have  been  so  co-ordinated 
that  the  products  of  the  different  mills  represented, 
instead  of  duplicating,  supplement  each  other  all 
along  the  line. 

The  result  is  that  to-day  the  products  marketed 
by  the  firm  cover  an  unusually  broad  range,  selling 
efficiency  is  promoted,  as  the  selling  of  one  product 
19 


INTRODUCTION 

naturally  leads  to  the  selling  of  another,  and  the 
mills  gain  because  they  are  enabled  to  specialize  on 
the  particular  products  for  which  they  are  best 
adapted.  The  machinery  of  each  mill  is  kept  con- 
tinuously employed  in  the  manufacture  of  those 
things  which  it  can  produce  at  the  least  cost  and  to 
the  best  advantage. 

The  firm  acts  as  sole  selling  agent  for  the 
Arlington  Mills  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  The 
Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company  of  Eddystone, 
Pennsylvania,  the  Manomet  Mills  of  New  Bedford, 
Massachusetts,  the  Nonquitt  Spinning  Company 
and  the  Nashawena  Mills  of  the  same  city,  and  also 
for  a  number  of  smaller  cotton  cloth  and  cotton 
yarn  mills.  The  firm  also  acts  as  a  dealer  in  cotton 
yarns,  purchasing  large  quantities  of  yarn  outright 
from  the  spinners  and  distributing  them  through 
the  channels  of  the  trade  to  a  wide  range  of  cus- 
tomers. The  yarns  so  purchased  and  distributed 
supplement  and  are  supplemented  by  the  products 
of  the  above  mills.  The  different  ranges  of  product 
strengthen  the  general  line  that  is  handled  and  so 
strengthen  each  other. 

The  mills  represented  and  the  firm  co-operating 
with  them  give  steady  employment  to  more  than 
fourteen  thousand  persons,  whose  combined  efforts 
are  constantly  directed  toward  producing  and  dis- 
tributing materials  that  are  indispensable  for  the 
clothing  of  the  people.  It  is  an  inspiration  to  realize 
that  in  return  for  what  he  or  she  receives  every  one 

20 


INTRODUCTION 

of  these  wage  earners  is  contributing  toward  the 
common  good.  The  dignity  of  labor  and  the  privi- 
lege of  work  should  be  appreciated  by  those  who 
have  at  heart  the  general  welfare  of  this  country. 
The  belief  that  labor  is  dignified  and  that  to  work 
is  and  should  be  a  privilege  is  one  of  the  greatest 
sources  of  our  energy  as  a  people.  The  dignity  of 
labor  and  the  privilege  of  work  are  the  keynotes  of 
our  remarkable  industry. 

The  firm  of  William  Whitman  &  Company 
markets  a  large  quantity  and  a  great  variety  of  tex- 
tile fabrics.  These  fabrics  are  made  from  wool, 
cotton,  and  silk,  and  mixtures  of  these  three  prin- 
cipal raw  materials.  A  maximum  output  of  more 
than  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  million  running 
yards  of  cloth  passes  from  the  looms  in  the  course 
of  a  single  year  —  enough  to  form  a  strand  from 
two  to  about  five  feet  in  width,  winding  three 
times  around  the  world,  with  many  thousand  miles 
of  cloth  to  spare.  The  raw  wools,  cottons,  and 
silks  required  for  this  output  of  fabric  are  drawn 
from  all  the  continents  and  embody  almost  all 
grades  and  varieties.  These  raw  materials  repre- 
sent great  value  when  spun  into  yarns  and  further 
worked  by  patient  intricate  processes  into  all-wool 
cloths,  superior  worsted  fabrics,  silk-filled  goods, 
printed  fabrics,  and  the  many  costly  cloths  described 
in  later  chapters. 

The  quantity  of  fabric  woven  each  year  is  impres- 
sive, but  it  measures  only  a  part  of  the  business. 
21 


INTRODUCTION 


In  addition  to  cloth  the  firm  markets  large  quan- 
tities of  worsted  yarn,  of  cotton  yarn,  and  of  the 
semi-manufactured  article  known  as  "tops" — wool 
combed  and  fully  prepared  for  the  spinner.  The 
output  of  yarns  and  tops,  most  of  which  are  sold 
to  other  manufacturers  of  textiles,  even  exceeds  the 
output  of  cloth  in  point  of  value. 

The  yearly  consumption  of  the  wools  and  cottons 
converted  into  these  diversified  products  is  in  excess 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  million  pounds. 
The  wool  that  is  used  in  a  year  is  equivalent  to 
about  one-sixth  of  the  entire  wool  clip  of  the  United 
States.  The  fleeces  of  thirty-three  thousand  sheep 
are  consumed  in  the  manufacturing  operations  of  a 
single  day.  Forty-four  mills  of  the  capacity  of  the 
Arlington  Mills  alone  could  absorb  the  wool  product 
of  the  entire  world.  The  cotton  used  each  year,  in 
number  of  pounds,  is  even  greater  than  the  corre- 
sponding quantity  of  wool.  The  kinds  of  cotton 
and  the  grades  of  wool  in  this  vast  consumption 
will  be  mentioned  in  later  chapters. 

The  business  of  the  firm  is  organized  or  arranged 
in  five  large  departments  : 

1.  Dress  Goods  Department. 

2.  Worsted  Yarn  Department. 

3.  Cotton  Yarn  Department. 

4.  Printed  Goods  Department. 

5.  Gray  Goods  Department. 

In  order  to  conduct  a  business  of  such  diversity 
and  magnitude  a  harmonious  and  efficient  organiza- 

22 


INTRODUCTION 

tion  is  indispensable.  The  organization  in  general, 
and  some  of  its  purposes,  will  be  outlined  in  the 
subsequent  discussion  of  the  several  departments  or 
subdivisions  of  the  business. 

In  discussing  the  different  departments  the  par- 
ticular products  marketed  by  each  department  and 
the  varied  uses  of  those  products  will  also  be 
described. 


ARLINGTON     MILLS 

Incorporated  in  1865,  under  the  laws  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts 

CAPITAL   STOCK,   $8,000,000 

Executive  Offices     .     .     .     .      78  CHAUNCY  ST.,  BOSTON 
Mills     .     .     LAWRENCE  AND  METHUEN,  MASSACHUSETTS 

OFFICERS 

WILLIAM  WHITMAN President 

FRANKLIN  W.  HOBBS Treasurer 

DIRECTORS 

GEORGE  E.  BULLARD  FRANKLIN  W.  HOBBS 

LIVINGSTON  CUSHING  GEORGE  E.  KUNHARDT 

WILLIAM  F.  DRAPER  CHARLES  W.  LEONARD 

ROBERT  H.  GARDINER  RICHARD  S.  RUSSELL 

JAMES  R.  HOOPER  GEORGE  M.  WHITIN 
WILLIAM  WHITMAN 

Clerk  of  the  Corporation 
C.  EATON  PIERCE 

Resident  Agent 

WILLIAM  D.   HARTSHORNE 

Lawrence,  Massachusetts 

Transfer  Agent 
THE  NEW  ENGLAND  TRUST  COMPANY 

135  Devonshire  Street,  Boston,  Massachusetts 


u 

y 


DRESS  GOODS  DEPARTMENT 


1  HIS  department  of  the  firm  of  William  Whitman 
&  Company  markets  all  the  dress  goods  manufactured 
by  the  Arlington  Mills.  The  Arlington  Mills  began 
the  manufacture  of  worsted  fabrics  almost  half  a  century 
ago.  At  that  time  the  industry  in  America  was  con- 
ducted under  severe  difficulties  —  a  high  standard  of 
perfection  had  already  been  attained  by  foreign  manu- 
facturers, and  the  best  worsted  fabrics  worn  in  this 
country  were  almost  all  imported  from  Europe.  Not 
only  were  there  few  men  in  this  country  who  were 
skilled  in  the  various  branches  of  worsted  manufactur- 
ing, but  there  was  also  a  distinct  prejudice  against 
American-made  goods.  Through  persistent  effort, 
however,  and  especially  through  obtaining  the  best 
designers,  weavers,  spinners,  and  dyers  trained  in  the 
art,  the  Arlington  Mills  gradually  brought  the  pro- 
ducts of  their  looms  to  compare  favorably  with  the 
best  products  of  Europe. 

This  progressive  course  has  been  steadily  continued. 
Machinery  has  been  perfected  and  the  highest  skill 
and  experience  secured,  until  to-day  the  worsted  dress 
fabrics  for  women's  and  children's  garments  made  by 
the  Arlington  Mills  are  nowhere  excelled  in  those 
particular  lines  they  manufacture. 

In  order  to  maintain  and  improve  this  standard  of 
quality,  and  strengthen  this  prestige,  the  mills  have 
a  representative  abroad  who  visits  the  great  centres  of 
fashion,  and  so  keeps  the  home  office  informed  as  to 
the  new  creations  of  foreign  designers  and  the  trend 
25 


DRESS      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

of  ideas  among  those  whose  profession  it  is  to  fix  or 
follow  fashion.  This  knowledge  is  supplemented  by 
the  efforts  of  a  corps  of  competent  designers  in  the 
mills  and  in  the  offices  of  William  Whitman  &  Com- 
pany. The  mills  have  agents  also  all  over  the  world  to 
select  and  purchase  the  special  wools  best  adapted  for 
each  particular  fabric.  These  agents  attend  all  of 
the  great  wool  sales  in  this  country  and  in  Europe, 
Australia,  and  South  America. 

Nearly  all  of  the  varieties  of  combing  wools  grown 
in  the  world  are  used  —  Australian  merino  and  cross- 
bred wools ;  South  American  merino  and  cross-bred 
wools ;  Cape  merino  wools ;  merino  and  cross-bred 
wools  grown  in  the  United  States  and  territories  ;  the 
lustrous  wools  of  pure  English  blood;  mohair  from 
Asiatic  Turkey,  and  alpaca  from  the  Andes.  Mohair, 
the  hair  of  the  Angora  goat,  supplied  largely  by  Asiatic 
Turkey,  is  used  in  fine  woven  fabrics  requiring  a  bril- 
liant lustre  or  sheen.  Alpaca,  the  hair  of  the  South 
American  llama,  which  comes  largely  from  the  moun- 
tains of  Peru,  is  made  into  black  fabrics  of  light  weight 
and  is  largely  used  for  brilliantines  and  linings. 

At  first  dress  fabrics  were  sold  by  the  firm  almost 
entirely  to  the  large  dry  goods  jobbing  houses,  by 
which  they  were  distributed  to  retailers  throughout  the 
country.  The  fabrics  were  made  in  widths  varying 
from  36  to  50  inches,  and  were  sold  by  retailers  over 
the  counter  to  their  customers.  These  materials  were 
either  made  up  at  home  or  were  taken  by  the  purchaser 
to  a  tailor  or  dressmaker  to  be  made  into  garments. 

A  gradual  change,  however,  has  developed  in  the 
method  of  distribution.  There  has  come  a  great  de- 
mand for  ready-to-wear  garments,  a  demand  that  has 
increased  wonderfully  within  the  past  few  years.  The 
26 


THE  ANGORA  GOAT  (FROM  WHICH  MOHAIR  IS  OBTAINED) 
ASIA  MINOR 


DRESS      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

manufacturers  of  ready-to-wear  clothing  buy  their  own 
fabrics,  make  up  the  garments  from  these  fabrics,  and 
sell  them  through  the  usual  channels  of  trade.  These 
manufacturers  use  a  vast  amount  of  worsted  dress  goods 
every  year,  and  for  this  particular  trade  special  fabrics 
have  to  be  produced.  These  fabrics  have  to  have  a 
uniform  width  and  to  be  of  such  a  character  that  they  can 
be  handled  in  great  quantities.  The  width  most  suit- 
able for  this  trade  is  the  uniform  width  of  54  inches. 

In  order  to  meet  the  demand  of  this  particular  trade, 
known  as  the  manufacturing  or  cutting-up  trade,  the 
Arlington  Mills  have  equipped  themselves  to  produce 
dress  fabrics  of  a  special  kind,  put  up  in  a  special  way, 
and  adapted  directly  for  the  needs  of  the  manufacturer 
of  ready-to-wear  garments.  A  special  sub-department 
has  been  created  by  the  firm  of  William  Whitman  & 
Company  to  distribute  these  fabrics  most  efficiently. 

The  whole  Dress  Goods  Department  is  now  organ- 
ized to  meet  satisfactorily  the  demands  of  the  jobbing 
trade  and  the  manufacturers  of  ready-to-wear  clothing. 
The  greatest  care  and  thought  are  given  to  the  creation 
of  styles,  to  the  construction  of  cloths,  and  to  the  other 
requirements  of  each  particular  trade. 

The  manufacturing  trade  is  large  and  steadily  grow- 
ing, as  we  have  stated.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  how- 
ever, that  out  of  the  wide  variety  of  dress  fabrics  that 
are  manufactured,  only  a  portion  are  suitable  for  ready- 
made  garments.  The  dressmaker,  both  domestic  and 
professional,  is  still  and  will  continue  to  be  a  very  im- 
portant factor.  The  fabrics  that  are  consumed  by  the 
dressmakers  of  the  country  are  all  distributed  through 
the  large  dry  goods  jobbing  houses.  They  are  vast 
in  quantity,  and  the  great  business  of  retailing  fabrics 
over  the  counter  is  sure  to  continue  as  heretofore. 
27 


DRESS      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

The  dress  goods  of  the  Arlington  Mills  fall  naturally 
into  two  distinct  classes  when  regarded  from  the  stand- 
point of  fashion  —  Staples  and  Fancies.  Staples  are 
those  fabrics  which  are  made  of  the  same  construction 
year  in  and  year  out.  They  vary  only  in  coloring,  to 
meet  the  changes  of  fashion. 

The  Staples  in  which  the  Arlington  Mills  specialize  are 
Britlian tines,  Sicilians,  Mohairs,  Imperial  Serges,  Storm 
Serges,  Cheviots,  Panamas,  Batistes,  Taffetas,  Voiles, 
Nun's  Veilings,  Cashmeres,  Shepherd  Checks,  etc. 

Fancies  include  all  kinds  of  novelties.  In  one  class 
of  these  novelties  the  different  effects  are  produced 
through  variation  of  weave,  in  another  class  princi- 
pally through  variation  of  color,  and  in  still  another 
class  through  variations  of  color  and  weave,  or  through 
odd  intermixtures  of  the  materials  going  into  their 
construction.  The  class  in  which  effects  are  produced 
through  the  weave  includes  Berbers,  Brocades,  Broca- 
telles,  Crispettes,  Melroses,  Hopsackings,  etc.  The 
class  in  which  the  effects  are  produced  largely  through 
coloring  includes  Stripes,  Checks,  Plaids,  Melanges, 
Mixtures,  etc.  The  third  class  includes  fabrics  so  novel 
in  their  makeup  that  the  names  applied  to  them  change 
from  time  to  time  and  have  no  established  significance. 
The  names  are  as  changeable  as  the  fabrics  themselves. 
In  general,  Fancies  or  Novelties  comprise  that  great 
variety  of  fabrics  in  vogue  for  a  time,  but  for  which  the 
demand  for  any  particular  style  is  transitory.  They 
change  from  year  to  year,  according  to  the  dictates  of 
fashion. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  anticipate  in  a  measure 

what  particular  styles  or  constructions  will  be  popular  in 

the  trade  during  any  given  season.     In  this  connection 

the  representative  of  the  mills  who  travels  through  the 

28 


DRESS      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

principal  cities  of  Europe  keeps  the  home  office  in- 
formed of  what  the  fashions  are  abroad.  Although 
to-day  this  country  is  growing  more  and  more  independ- 
ent of  Europe  as  to  style,  nevertheless  it  is  true  that 
the  dressmakers  and  tailors  of  Europe  have  a  great  deal 
of  influence  over  fashions  in  this  country.  What  the 
foreign  dressmakers  are  doing,  therefore,  must  be  taken 
into  consideration  and  weighed  with  other  information 
in  order  properly  to  anticipate  what  the  trade  is  likely 
to  demand. 

From  the  manufacturer's  standpoint  —  that  is,  from 
the  standpoint  of  one  who  considers  the  method  of  con- 
struction and  the  materials  that  go  into  the  different 
fabrics  —  the  Arlington  Mills  dress  goods  may  be  clas- 
sified under  three  general  heads  :  Piece-Dyed  Fabrics, 
Cross-Dyed  Fabrics,  and  Yarn-Dyed  Fabrics. 

Piece-Dyed  Fabrics  are  woven  with  the  yarns  (the 
separate  threads  that  are  wrought  together  to  make  the 
fabric)  in  their  gray  or  natural  state.  They  are  then 
cleansed  and  dyed  in  the  piece  to  such  colors  as  are 
required.  They  are  woven  in  plain  weaves  in  a  great 
variety  of  twills,  stripes,  and  figures,  all  the  way  from 
a  plain  spot  to  an  elaborate  brocade.  These  fabrics 
may  be  made  wholly  of  worsted  yarns,  or  of  worsted 
yarns  in  combination  with  cotton  yarns,  or  of  worsted 
yarns  in  combination  with  cotton  yarns  that  have  been 
put  through  the  mercerizing  process  to  look  like  silk, 
or  of  worsted  yarns  with  silk  yarns  or  wool  yarns. 
The  principal  fabrics  in  this  classification  are  :  Imperial 
Serges,  Storm  Serges,  Cheviots,  Panamas,  Veilings, 
Prunellas,  Whipcords,  Melroses,  Poplins,  Venetians, 
Coverts,  Satins,  Batistes,  Taffetas,  Voiles,  Nun's  Veil- 
ings, Canvases,  Grenadines,  Albatrosses,  Crepes, 
Rainproof  cloths,  Cashmeres,  Silk-Warp  Henriettas, 
29 


DRESS      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

and,  in   fact,  an   endless   variety   of  plain   and  fancy 
Suitings. 

Cross-Dyed  Fabrics  are  woven  with  black  or  colored 
cotton  warps  — that  is,  the  yarns  or  threads  that  run 
lengthwise  in  the  fabrics  —  and  wool  or  worsted  filling 
—  that  is,  the  yarns  or  threads  that  run  across  the 
fabrics.  After  being  woven,  these  fabrics  are  dyed  in 
the  piece.  The  cotton  does  not  take  the  wool  dye,  but 
retains  its  original  color.  This  class  of  work  is  more 
generally  used  in  what  are  known  as  Mohair,  Alpaca, 
and  Lustre  fabrics.  This  process  is  adopted  instead 
of  subjecting  the  goods  to  a  cotton-dye  bath  after  being 
woven,  because  in  this  way  the  natural  brilliancy  of  the 
Lustre  wool,  Mohair,  or  Alpaca  in  the  filling  is  not 
impaired.  The  cotton-dye  bath  is  liable  to  destroy  the 
lustre,  and  for  this  reason  a  part  of  the  goods  —  that 
is,  the  cotton  portion  —  is  dyed  before  the  weaving 
takes  place.  The  principal  cross-dyed  fabrics  are  Bril- 
liantines,  Alpacas,  Mohairs,  Florentines, Glaces,  Cotton- 
Warp  Taffetas,  Batistes,  Serges  and  Cashmeres,  Crisp- 
ettes,  Fancy  Lenos,  Fancy  Waistings,  and  Rainproof 
cloths.  They  have  the  same  variety  of  weaves  and 
patterns  as  have  piece-dyed  goods.  The  Arlington 
Mills  have  made  a  specialty  of  cross-dyed  fabrics, 
which  form  a  large  part  of  their  product. 

Yarn-Dyed  Fabrics  are  woven  from  dyed  yarns  or 
from  yarns  spun  from  dyed  wool.  This  process  is 
particularly  applicable  to  Shepherd  Checks,  Mixtures, 
Melanges,  Fancy  Checks  and  Plaids,  and  Fancy  Cloak- 
ings  and  Suitings.  The  box  loom  is  used  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  these  cloths  more  than  in  other  cloths. 
The  desired  effects  can  be  produced  in  all-wool  fabrics, 
cotton-warp  fabrics,  or  in  fabrics  made  of  a  mixture  of 
cotton  and  wool.  The  different  effects,  however,  are 
30 


DRESS      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

obtained  in  this  class  of  merchandise  more  through 
skilful  variations  of  color  and  pattern  than  through 
changes  in  construction  of  the  cloth. 

Staple  Fabrics  and  Fancies  or  Novelties  all  fall  within 
the  above  classification.  They  are  either  yarn-dyed, 
piece-dyed,  or  cross-dyed.  The  Arlington  Mills  dress 
fabrics  are  now  made  in  weights  from  3  to  1 2  ounces  a 
yard  and  in  widths  varying  from  28  inches  to  56  inches. 
These  fabrics  are  made  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  great  masses  of  the  people,  and  the  fabrics  are  dis- 
tributed widely  throughout  the  United  States.  Perhaps 
the  most  characteristic  feature  of  this  dress  goods 
branch  of  the  Arlington  Mills  business  is  the  making 
of  specialties  for  the  trade  on  orders,  which  have  here- 
tofore been  made  solely  in  Europe.  This  business  has 
recently  grown  to  large  proportions.  Importers  and 
others  are  enabled  to  place  orders  for  novelties  in  cloths, 
with  the  understanding  that  the  same  article,  or  any 
article  so  closely  resembling  it  as  to  conflict  with  its  sale, 
shall  not  be  made  by  the  Arlington  Mills  for  other 
houses.  In  this  way  the  individuality  of  each  firm,  as 
to  taste  or  design,  can  be  reserved  to  its  own  use  or 
advantage. 

Dress  goods,  strictly  speaking,  are  made  only  for 
women  and  children.  The  Dress  Goods  Department, 
however,  markets  other  fabrics  of  the  Arlington  Mills 
which  are  not  strictly  dress  goods.  The  Arlington 
Mills  are  especially  equipped  to  manufacture  linings 
for  men's  coats  and  suits.  For  light-weight  linings,  for 
ordinary  suits,  cotton-warp  or  Alpaca  or  plain  linings 
are  used.  In  order  to  obtain  the  highest  lustre  these 
linings  are  made  from  dyed  cotton  warps,  and  filling 
made  with  Alpaca,  Mohair,  or  highly  lustrous  wool. 
They  are  woven  in  plain  weaves,  and  the  very  greatest 


DRESS      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

care  has  to  be  taken  in  dyeing  and  finishing  them  to 
preserve  their  brilliant  lustre. 

For  the  heavier  linings  a  cotton-warp  serge  is  used. 
These  are  manufactured  from  the  same  materials  as  the 
lighter  linings,  but  the  weave  is  made  up  of  a1  variety 
of  twills  instead  of  being  plain.  Great  quantities  of 
these  serges  are  used  wherever  a  lining  of  some  weight 
is  required.  Success  in  the  manufacture  of  this  fabric 
rests  almost  entirely  with  the  finish.  The  Arlington 
Mills,  however,  are  among  the  few  in  this  country  that 
are  fitted  to  finish  successfully  this  class  of  merchan- 
dise. Another  class  of  linings  is  used  to  line  over- 
coatings. These  linings  are  made  in  a  variety  of 
checks  and  plaids,  usually  woven  from  dyed  yarns, 
either  all-wool  or  cotton  warps,  or  a  combination  of 
worsted  and  cotton  yarns.  In  addition  to  linings  the 
Arlington  Mills  manufacture  special  cloths  that  are  put 
by  the  purchasers  through  various  patented  processes 
and  made  into  automobile  tops,  curtains,  and  seat 
coverings.  The  extensive  use  of  the  automobile  has 
created  a  great  demand  for  materials  suitable  for  these 
purposes.  It  has  also  created  a  demand  for  cloths  fitted 
for  garments  to  be  worn  in  motoring,  such  as  dusters, 
cloakings,  raincoats,  etc.  The  Arlington  Mills  have 
been  making  a  careful  study  of  these  particular  cloths 
suitable  for  all  purposes  connected  with  the  automobile, 
and  are  equipped  to  manufacture  in  large  quantities  all 
the  varieties  that  are  required. 

The  automobile  cloths  and  the  linings,  as  well  as 
the  dress  goods,  are  distributed  by  the  Dress  Goods 
Department  through  the  usual  channels  of  trade  which 
we  have  described. 


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WORSTED  YARN   DEPARTMENT 


JL  HIS  department  handles  the  entire  production 
of  the  Arlington  Mills  in  worsted  yarns  and  in  what 
are  known  as  "tops"  — already  described  in  a  pre- 
ceding chapter  as  wool  combed  and  prepared  for 
spinning.  In  addition,  the  Arlington  Mills  have 
made  a  specialty  of  combing  wool  on  commission 
for  other  mills,  and  this  work  is  also  handled 
through  this  department.  In  the  manufacture  of 
worsted  yarns  and  tops,  the  Arlington  Mills  con- 
sume practically  every  kind  of  wool  grown  in  the 
world  that  is  suitable  for  clothing  purposes,  from  the 
finest  merino  Australian  wool  for  the  highest  class 
of  goods  to  the  lower  grades  of  combing  wool. 

The  work  of  the  Worsted  Yarn  Department  may 
be  classified  under  three  heads :  Worsted  Yarns, 
Worsted  Tops,  and  Commission  Combing.  Each 
of  these  divisions  will  be  separately  considered. 

First,  as  to  Worsted  Yarns,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  production  of  perfect  worsted  yarns  is  probably 
the  most  difficult  form  of  textile  manufacture.  For 
many  years  prior  to  the  Civil  War  it  was  assumed 
that  because  of  climatic  and  other  conditions  the 
spinning  of  these  yarns  could  not  be  conducted  in 
the  United  States.  In  1854  the  English  worsted 
manufacturers  of  Bradford  presented  to  Congress, 
through  the  British  Minister  in  Washington,  a 
memorial  urging  the  reduction  of  the  then  low 
ad  valorem  duty  of  25  per  cent  on  worsteds  for 
33 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

the  reason  that  they  "  do  not  come  into  competi- 
tion with  American  goods."  What  is  more,  the 
American  Congress  actually  granted  the  petition  of 
these  foreign  manufacturers  and  in  1857  reduced  the 
duty  to  a  point  where  American  competition  was 
believed  to  be  impossible !  Yet  there  was  at  that 
time  an  impression  in  this  country  that  the  Ameri- 
can people  had  successfully  established  their  inde- 
pendence of  external  authority  in  the  Revolution 
of  1775-1783. 

Step  by  step,  however,  the  successful  manufacture 
of  worsted  yarns  and  fabrics  has  been  developed  in 
the  United  States,  and  one  technical  difficulty  after 
another  has  been  overcome  by  force  of  ingenuity 
and  perseverance.  The  Arlington  Mills,  pioneers 
in  this  great  work,  are  producing  many  million 
pounds  of  worsted  yarns  every  year.  An  enormous 
quantity  of  these  yarns  is  required  by  the  weav- 
ing department  of  the  mills  for  manufacturing  the 
diverse,  beautiful,  and  useful  fabrics  described  in  the 
preceding  chapter.  But  over  and  above  the  con- 
sumption of  the  Arlington  looms  themselves  another 
very  great  quantity  of  worsted  yarn,  produced  by 
the  Arlington  spindles,  is  available  for  sale  to  other 
manufacturers.  These  yarns  that  are  thus  sold 
enter  into  almost  every  kind  of  worsted  cloth.  They 
are  purchased  not  only  by  other  mills  manufactur- 
ing ladies'  and  children's  dress  goods,  but  also  by 
the  manufacturers  of  men's  wear.  They  are  utilized 
in  the  production  of  underwear,  hosiery,  sweaters, 
and  braids.  The  yarns  are  spun  in  practically  all 
qualities  and  degrees  of  fineness,  and  are  delivered 
34 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

in  the  gray,  in  solid  colors,  in  fancy  mixtures,  or  in 
doubles  and  twists.  The  following  list  of  worsted 
yarns  that  are  produced  for  sale  by  the  Arlington 
Mills  to  manufacturers  who  do  not  do  their  own 
spinning  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  broad  range  of 
choice  offered  to  purchasers. 

ARLINGTON    MILLS   WORSTED   YARN 
SPECIALTIES 

ENGLISH    SYSTEM    SPINNING 

Two  OR  MORE  PLY  GRAY 
Warp  and  Filling. 
Delivered  in  Skeins,  on  Spools  or  Dresser  Spools. 

SINGLE  GRAY 

Warp  and  Filling. 

Delivered  on  Filling  Bobbins,  Quiller  Bobbins,  Paper 

Tubes,  Cones,  or  Dresser  Spools. 

SINGLE  SLUB  DYED  COLORS  AND  MIXTURES 

Fancy,  Black  and  Gray,  Black  and  Bleached  White 

Mixtures,  and  Jaspers. 

Delivered  in  same  forms  as  Single  Gray. 

Two  OR  MORE  PLY  SLUB  DYED  COLORS  AND  MIXTURES 
Fancy,   Black    and    Gray,   and    Black   and    Bleached 
Mixtures,  Jaspers,  Double,  and  Twist. 
Delivered  in  same  forms  as  Two  Ply  Gray  yarns. 

SINGLE  KNITTING  YARNS 

Gray,    Black    and    Gray,    and    Black    and    Bleached 

Mixtures,  Astrachan,  and   Boucle. 

Delivered  in  the  same  form  as  Single  Gray  already 

enumerated. 

35 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

Two  OR  MORE  PLY  KNITTING  YARNS 

Same  as  above  and  in  addition  thereto  Floss,  Saxony, 
Spanish,  and  Germantown. 
Delivered  in  the  Gray  in  Skeins. 

SINGLE  TURKEY  MOHAIR 
Gray,  Flyer  Spun. 
Delivered  on  Spinning  Bobbins  or  Paper  Tubes. 

Two  OR  MORE  PLY  TURKEY  MOHAIR 
Gray,  Flyer  Spun. 
Delivered  in  Skeins,  on  Spools  and  Dresser  Spools. 

FRENCH    SYSTEM    SPINNING 
SINGLE 

Gray,  Jasper,  Silver,  Blue,  and  Light  Fancy  Mixtures. 

Delivered  on  Cops  and  Cones  for  Knitting. 

Gray  Warp  and  Filling  Yarns. 

Delivered  on  Cops,  Cones,  Spools,  and  Dresser  Spools. 

Two  OR  MORE  PLY 
Gray. 

Delivered  in  Skeins,  on  Spools,  Quiller  Bobbins,  and 
Dresser  Spools. 

The  Arlington  Mills  worsted  yarns  are  used 
by  manufacturers  of  all  descriptions  of  men's 
wear  goods,  women's  and  children's  dress 
goods,  women's  and  children's  underwear  and 
hose,  upholstery,  plushes,  sweaters,  braids,  and 
trimmings. 

The  fancy  colored  yarns  for  men's  wear  goods 
spun  by  the  Arlington  Mills  enjoy  deservedly  a 
reputation  unsurpassed  by  those  of  any  other 
American  or  European  manufacturers.  Yarns  are 
delivered  in  skeins  or  on  dresser  spools,  five-inch 

36 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

spools,  spinning  bobbins,  quiller  bobbins,  cones, 
tubes,  beams,  or  in  any  other  form  required  by  the 
purchasers.  Customers  have  the  security  of 
knowing  that  the  yarns  which  they  are  buying  are 
of  standard  grades,  and  that  the  wool  used  to  pro- 
duce one  quality  of  yarn  is  the  same  from  one  year 
to  another.  There  is  no  need  of  continual  sam- 
pling to  test  and  verify  the  quality,  and  reorders  are 
certain  to  bring  yarns  of  the  same  even  excellence. 

The  Arlington  yarns  are  spun  from  conditioned 
top,  so  that  no  excess  of  moisture  is  present,  and  the 
percentage  of  pure  olive  oil  used  is  uniform  and  as 
low  as  is  consistent  with  the  best  results.  The 
immense  volume  of  production  of  the  Arlington 
Mills  is  of  itself  a  guarantee  of  sustained  perfection 
of  quality,  and  this  immense  volume  permits  of 
larger  and  prompter  deliveries  when  these  are  de- 
sired than  small  mills  could  possibly  supply.  A 
new  worsted  yarn  mill  in  the  Arlington  group  will 
increase  by  fifty  per  cent  the  already  huge  capacity 
of  the  establishment. 

Just  as  the  Arlington  Mills  make  not  only  all 
the  worsted  yarn  required  for  their  looms,  but  a  very 
great  amount  of  yarn  for  sale  to  other  manufacturers, 
so  they  also  make  all  the  worsted  tops  required  for 
their  spindles,  and  have  a  quantity  besides,  which 
is  marketed  through  the  Worsted  Yarn  Depart- 
ment of  William  Whitman  &  Company.  From 
the  immense  top  mill  of  the  Arlington  Mills  a  vast 
product  is  distributed  of  these  tops,  that  convenient 
and  valuable  form  of  semi-manufactured  wool,  well 
described  as  "the  earliest  stage  in  which  wool  can 

37 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

be  traded  in,  as  corn  or  cotton  are  traded  in,  with 
any  certainty  of  uniformity  in  the  article." 

The  Arlington  Mills  were  the  first  in  America  to 
recognize  in  any  large,  bold  way  the  importance  of 
this  particular  form  of  specialization  in  wool  manu- 
facture. This  was  as  far  back  as  1894,  when  the 
industry  in  the  United  States  was  about  to  go 
temporarily  upon  a  free  wool  basis  and  there  was 
no  certainty  as  to  the  amount  of  protection  that 
would  eventually  be  given  to  the  manufacturer. 
It  was  in  an  exceedingly  dark  and  troublous  era, 
when  courage  was  a  rare  quality,  that  the  Arlington 
Mills  began  the  evolution  of  the  present  great  and 
prosperous  production  of  tops,  which  has  been 
brought  now  to  a  basis  of  scientific  uniformity  and 
precision  unexcelled  in  the  most  ancient  seats  of 
textile  industry  in  Europe. 

The  achievements  of  the  Arlington  Mills  in 
this  direction  are  two-fold  —  first,  in  developing 
a  superior  process  for  the  thorough  and  economical 
cleansing  of  the  wool  to  be  combed  into  tops,  and 
second,  in  establishing  the  present  sound,  practical, 
equitable  basis  on  which  tops  are  sold  in  America. 
In  both  of  these  undertakings  the  Arlington  Mills 
have  been  the  unquestioned  pioneers,  and  the  advan- 
tages of  these  notable  achievements  are  now  made 
available  to  all  their  customers. 

All  of  the  wool  combed  by  the  Arlington  man- 
agement, either  for  the  tops  that  are  to  be  utilized 
for  its  own  spinning  purposes,  or  for  the  other 
tops  that  are  to  be  sold  to  other  manufacturers,  or 
the  wool  of  dealers  or  of  other  manufacturers  sent 
38 


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WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

to  the  mills  for  combing  on  commission — all  this 
wool  secures  the  benefits  of  the  famous  naphtha 
solvent  process  of  cleansing,  by  which  the  grease  is 
removed  from  the  wool  without  any  necessity  of 
washing  with  soap  or  chemicals.  This  is  a  patented 
process,  owned  and  installed  exclusively  by  the 
Arlington  Mills,  the  perfected  result  of  many  years 
of  skilled  and  exhaustive  testing  and  experiment. 

Under  this  process  the  raw,  unwashed  wool,  full 
not  only  of  grease  but  of  dirt,  is  subjected  in  a 
thoroughly  safe  and  effective  way  to  the  action  of 
the  naphtha  solvent.  This  removes  the  true  grease 
of  the  wool,  leaving,  however,  the  natural  alkali  of 
the  wool,  which  forms  a  natural  soap  with  a  base  of 
potash.  Then  the  application  of  warm  —  not  hot  — 
water  suffices  to  cleanse  the  wool  of  dirt  and  to  pro- 
duce a  fibre  with  all  its  impurities  eliminated  and  its 
strength  unimpaired,  perfectly  adapted  for  combing 
and  manufacturing. 

This  wonderful  process,  which  the  Arlington 
Mills  exclusively  employ,  makes  it  possible  to  secure 
an  increased  amount  of  clean  wool  from  a  given 
quantity  of  unwashed  wool.  The  fibre  comes  out 
in  better  and  stronger  condition  than  from  the  old 
processes,  the  cost  of  commercial  soaps  and  alkalies 
is  dispensed  with,  and  there  is  a  further  consid- 
erable gain  in  the  saving  of  valuable  by-products, 
which  can  be  marketed.  The  wool  cleansed  under 
these  improved  conditions  produces  a  superior 
quality  of  top  and  yarn,  softer,  easier  to  work, 
and  more  desirable  in  every  way  than  the  pro- 
duct of  the  crude,  old-fashioned  methods  followed 
39 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

even  now  by  many  manufacturers  in  America  and 
Europe. 

Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  successful,  modern 
textile  manufacturing.  The  Arlington  Mills  have 
led  the  way  in  another  important  new  departure  — 
the  study  and  investigation  of  the  hygroscopic  quali- 
ties of  wool,  so  indispensable  to  the  fixing  of  a 
proper  standard  for  the  buying  and  selling  of  tops. 
One  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  wool  fibre  is  that 
it  is  capable  of  absorbing  a  large  quantity  of  water 
without  a  perceptible  change  of  appearance.  This 
moisture  enters  the  minute  spaces  between  the  cells 
of  the  fibre  and  even  permeates  the  substance  of 
which  these  cells  are  composed.  Wool  exposed  to 
damp  air  will  absorb  in  a  short  time  from  10  to  20 
per  cent  of  additional  moisture  and,  of  course, 
increase  in  weight  by  that  amount. 

Fifteen  years  ago  Mr.  William  D.  Hartshorne, 
then  the  superintendent  of  the  worsted  department 
and  now  the  agent  of  the  Arlington  Mills,  conducted 
some  interesting  and  exact  experiments  of  great 
scientific  interest,  which  showed  that  the  moisture 
in  a  skein  of  worsted  yarn  varied  from  a  little  over 
7  per  cent  to  35  per  cent  of  its  entire  weight  in  the 
course  of  a  year,  and,  indeed,  often  from  15  to  20 
per  cent  in  twenty-four  hours.  Mr.  Hartshorne, 
who  is  to-day  recognized  as  the  foremost  authority 
in  the  United  States  on  the  hygroscopic  properties 
of  yarns  and  fabrics  and  on  atmospheric  conditions 
in  textile  manufacturing,  conducted  an  elaborate 
series  of  calculations,  most  precisely  carried  out,  and 
determined  the  substantial  accuracy  of  the  allowance 
40 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

made  by  the  Arlington  Mills,  and  now  accepted  by 
other  manufacturers,  of  15  per  cent  for  what  is  called 
"  regain  "  from  bone-dry  in  the  sale  of  tops,  a  stand- 
ard that  gives  authority  and  permanency  to  an  im- 
portant division  of  the  textile  trade.  The  Arlington 
Mills  and  Mr.  Hartshorne  in  this  undertaking  have 
rendered  a  large  and  enduring  service  to  the  entire 
industry.  Here  is  a  signal  example  of  the  way  in 
which,  in  our  modern  age,  science  is  made  to  con- 
tribute to  the  evolution  of  business  and  the  diffusion 
of  prosperity. 

All  of  the  great  and  advanced  facilities  of  the 
Arlington  Mills  are  placed  at  the  disposal  of  wool 
dealers  and  manufacturers  who  send  their  wool  to 
the  mills  for  combing  on  commission.  They  are 
allowed  all  of  the  advantages  of  the  naphtha  sol- 
vent process,  which  yields  to  them  a  larger  amount 
of  top  from  a  given  amount  of  wool  than  can  be 
procured  by  any  other  process  —  and  not  only  a 
larger  amount  of  top,  but  top  in  better  condition 
for  successful  drawing  and  spinning. 

This  commission  combing  has  become  a  large  and 
constantly  increasing  factor  in  the  business  of  the 
Arlington  Mills.  Any  combing  wool,  including 
the  grades  used  in  the  manufacture  of  carpet  yarns, 
may  be  shipped  to  the  mills,  where  it  will  be  sorted, 
cleansed  by  the  patent  solvent  process,  and  carded 
and  combed  with  the  same  scrupulous  care  and  high 
efficiency  and  economy  that  characterize  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  Arlington  wools.  These  facilities, 
possible  only  in  a  very  great  establishment,  are 
offered  to  worsted  spinners  and  dealers  throughout 
41 


WORSTED      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

the  country.  When  wool  is  combed  on  commission 
the  resultant  products,  including  top,  noils,  and  wastes, 
are  returned  to  the  owner.  Such  a  low  charge  is 
made  for  this  work  that  it  is  often  more  economical 
for  manufacturers  to  send  their  wool  to  be  combed 
as  they  require  it  than  to  install  their  own  combing 
machinery. 

It  is  usually  estimated  that  of  the  total  cost  of  a 
worsted  spinning  plant,  at  least  three-fifths  repre- 
sents the  machinery  requisite  for  the  preliminary 
processes  of  preparing  the  wool  for  the  spinning 
frame  itself.  The  spinner  who  regularly  utilizes 
the  advantages  of  a  great  central  combing  plant  like 
that  of  the  Arlington  Mills  saves  the  fixed  charges 
upon  a  very  large  investment  in  machinery  and  the 
cost  of  a  long  holding  of  his  raw  materials. 


Beg.  U.  a.  Pat.  Office 

ARLINGTON    MILLS 


THE    WORLD'S    COTTON    MILLS 

(According  to  latest  known  estimates') 


COUNTRY 

Mills 

Spindles 

Looms 

Bales 

Hands 
Employed 

Gt.  Britain    1909 

1977 

57,026,422 

739,382 

3,426,000 

620,000 

U.  S.  North  1908 

1067 

17,543,752 

t340,682 

2,371,200 

+197,137 

U.  S.  South  1909 

727 

10,370,333 

2-14,716 

2,573,524 

+121,000 

Germany        1909 

372 

10,162,872 

+230,200 

1,979,958 

375,000 

Russia            1909 

94 

6,700,000 

+154,577 

1,495,000 

350,000 

Poland           1909 

43 

1,249,497 

*12,000 

300,000 

*35,000 

Finland,  etc.  1909 

13 

424,982 

— 

46,000 

— 

France           1908 

430 

6,731,316 

110,000 

890,000 

95,000 

Austria          1908 

139 

4,412,072 

+144,000 

860,000 

127,000 

Hungary       1905 

17 

250,000 

4,815 

48,000 

8,000 

Switzerland  1909 

68 

1,491,531 

19,594 

117,000 

19,000 

Italy              1909 

495 

4,500,000 

+120,000 

700,000 

132,000 

Spain            1909 

257 

1,800,000 

55,000 

330,000 

70,000 

Portugal        1909 

35 

450,000 

8,000 

80,000 

25,000 

Belgium         1909 

46 

1,200,000 

+24,000 

160,000 

15,000 

Holland          1909 

50 

464,890 

29,860 

77,000 

26,000 

Sweden          1909 

35 

420,000 

11,000 

90,000 

_ 

Norway         1909 

12 

86,576 

2,329 

17,000 

2,625 

Denmark       1909 

5 

77,644 



25,000 

1,000 

Rumania        1899 

— 

40,000 





— 

Turkey          1908 

13 

100,000 

— 

26,000 

— 

Greece           1906 

— 

97,000 

2,100 

15,000 

— 

Egypt            1908 

2 

36,000 

506 

3,000 

600 

Asia  Minor   1909 

5 

130,000 

_ 

25,000 

— 

India             1908 

241 

5,756,020 

67,920 

1,991,500 

221,915 

China            1907 

28 

750,000 

2,200 

200,000 

— 

Japan            1908 

82 

1,695,879 

9,626 

1,124,787 

76,566 

Indo-China   1905 

4 

64,000 

— 

— 

— 

Philippines    1905 

1 

7,420 

222 

2,000 

230 

Brazil            1908 

110 

1,300,000 

+26,928 

375,000 

— 

Argentina      1906 

2 

10,000 

3,250 

— 

— 

Peru               1904 

7 

— 

1,355 

— 

— 

Colombia       1908 

1 

6,116 

104 

800 

160 

Mexico          1908 

142 

693,842 

23,507 

160,000 

33,131 

Canada          1908 

29 

855,293 

19,265 

125,000 

10,214 

TOTAL  (estimated) 

6,549 

136,903,457 

2,377,138 

19,633,769 

2,561,578 

t  Incomplete 


*  Previous  Returns 


Comtelburo  Limited,  of  London,  furnishes  this  compilation. 


43 


MANOMET     MILLS 

Incorporated  in  IQOJ,  under  the  Ia<ws  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts 

CAPITAL    STOCK,  $2,000,000 

President's  Office      .     .     .     .      78   CHAUNCY  ST.,  BOSTON 
Treasurer's  Office  and  Mills  NEW  BEDFORD,  MASSACHUSETTS 

OFFICERS 

WILLIAM  WHITMAN President 

ARNOLD  C.  GARDNER    .  .      .     Treasurer 


DIRECTORS 

WILLIAM  F.  DRAPER  CHARLES  W.  LEONARD 

ARNOLD  C.  GARDNER  GEORGE  E.  KUNHARDT 

HENDRICKS  H.  WHITMAN  GEORGE  M.  WHITIN 

WILLIAM  WHITMAN 


Clerk  of  the  Corporation 
J.  EARLE  PARKER 


Resident  Agent 
JESSE  A.  KNIGHT 


COTTON  YARN  DEPARTMENT 


J.  HE  varied  products  handled  by  the  Cotton  Yarn 
Department  of  William  Whitman  &  Company 
fall  naturally,  on  a  basis'  alike  of  geography  and 
character,  into  two  classes  —  Northern  Yarns  and 
Southern  Yarns.  The  total  range  of  these  cotton 
yarns  is  exceptionally  broad,  covering  practically 
every  kind,  number,  and  quality  of  cotton  yarn  com- 
mercially used  in  the  United  States.  In  view  of  this 
wide  range  of  products,  the  Cotton  Yarn  Department 
has  been  skilfully  organized,  so  that  the  different 
yarns,  though  many  in  number,  do  not  conflict  with 
each  other.  The  sound,  underlying  principle  upon 
which  the  business  of  the  firm  has  been  established 
is  here,  as  elsewhere,  inflexibly  adhered  to.  Each 
mill  produces  only  a  certain  group  of  specialties  for 
which  it  is  particularly  fitted.  There  is  no  duplica- 
tion of  product,  no  competition  and  conflict  of  the 
output  of  one  mill  with  the  output  of  another.  The 
different  products  supplement  each  other  all  along 
the  line. 

In  describing  the  different  Northern  Yarns  and 
Southern  Yarns,  we  will  follow  the  natural  order  of 
the  processes  involved  in  their  manufacture.  The 
simplest  forms  of  yarn  will  be  mentioned  first,  yarns 
that  require  a  little  more  skill  and  further  processes 
in  their  manufacture  will  be  mentioned  next,  and 
so  on. 

Southern  Yarns  are  the  simplest  in  the  point  of 
45 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

manufacture.  These  yarns  are  made  principally 
of  American  cotton  and  for  the  most  part  are 
carded  yarns.  The  carding  process  is  an  elemen- 
tary process  required  in  all  yarns.  There  is  an 
infinite  variety  of  uses  for  these  carded  yarns,  which 
are  cheaper  than  combed  yarns.  They  are  made  not 
only  into  ordinary  cotton  cloth,  but  into  carpets, 
rugs,  hammocks,  rope  and  twine,  and  window  cords. 
They  are  utilized  for  the  insulation  of  electrical 
cables  and  for  the  covering  of  fire  hose.  These 
carded  yarns  are  used  in  enormous  quantities,  and 
to  meet  this  broad  and  steady  demand  the  firm  does 
an  extensive  business  in  carded  yarns  from  the 
Southern  cotton  mills.  The  yarn  mills  of  the  South, 
as  a  rule,  are  comparatively  small  in  size,  confining 
themselves  usually  to  a  few  numbers,  and  sometimes 
to  only  one.  William  Whitman  &  Company  market 
the  entire  product  of  some  of  these  mills,  but  in 
addition  act  as  dealers,  purchasing  large  quantities 
of  yarn  outright  from  the  spinners  and  distributing 
them  through  the  channels  of  their  trade  to  a  wide 
range  of  customers.  It  is  the  constant  aim  of  the 
firm,  in  the  handling  of  these  Southern  yarns,  to 
deal  only  with  the  most  skilful  and  responsible 
manufacturers,  and  only  in  such  yarns  as  may  be 
offered  with  the  most  implicit  confidence. 

The  Northern  Yarns  include  the  total  products  of 
the  Manomet  Mills  and  the  Nonquitt  Spinning 
Company  of  New  Bedford,  and  of  the  cotton  spin- 
ning mill  of  the  Arlington  Mills,  which  manufacture 
certain  special  combed  yarns  in  addition  to  the  other 
numerous  textile  products  already  mentioned.  The 
46 


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COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

Northern  Yarns  are  all  combed  yarns.  They  are  put 
through  the  carding  process  like  all  other  yarns,  but 
are  subjected  also  to  a  further  process  of  combing, 
which  straightens  the  fibres,  removes  the  short  cotton, 
and  virtually  eliminates  the  small  particles  of  dirt  and 
leaf  always  found,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  yarns  that 
have  been  only  carded.  Combed  yarns  require  the 
better  grades  of  cotton  and  the  greater  lengths  of 
stapl-e.  They  embody  the  highest  perfection  of  the 
spinner's  art. 

In  the  manufacture  of  these  yarns,  atmospheric 
conditions,  s.o  important,  as  we  have  shown,  in  the 
handling  and  manufacture  of  wool,  are  a  vital  factor. 
In  a  sense,  the  natural  moisture  of  the  air  of  Lanca- 
shire made  it  world  renowned  for  its  cotton  mills, 
just  as  the  natural  air  of  Yorkshire  made  it  famous 
for  its  woolen  and  worsted  factories.  It  is  true  that 
to-day  modern  processes  have  been  so  far  perfected 
that  it  is  possible  to  produce  and  maintain  by  artificial 
means  almost  any  desired  degree  of  moisture  in  the 
interior  of  a  textile  mill.  There  are  localities,  how- 
ever, that  are  peculiarly  well  adapted  for  certain 
branches  of  textile  manufacture.  The  city  of  New 
Bedford,  Massachusetts,  is  one  of  these.  Its  climatic 
and  general  conditions  are  as  well  adapted  for  fine 
cotton  spinning  and  weaving  as  those  of  any  other 
locality  in  this  country. 

Through  the  Cotton  Yarn  Department,  William 
Whitman  &  Company  market  all  the  combed 
yarn  of  the  Manomet  Mills  and  of  the  Nonquitt 
Spinning  Company,  located  in  New  Bedford,  on  the 
Acushnet  River.  These  modern  mills  are  equipped 
47 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

with  every  improvement  for  the  manufacture  of 
combed  yarns  from  the  better  grades  of  American, 
Egyptian,  and  Sea  Island  cotton.  The  Manomet 
Mills  produce  in  their  No.  i  Mill  the  coarser 
counts,  or  yarns  sizing  from  8s  to  2os,  and  in  their 
No.  2  Mill  the  intermediate  counts,  or  yarns  sizing 
from  2os  to  365. 

MANOMET   MILLS   COMBED   YARN 
SPECIALTIES 

MULE    SPUN 
Spun  in  numbers  8  to  26 
SINGLE:    Delivered  on  Cops,  Cones,  and  Skeins. 

Made  especially  for  underwear  and  hosiery.  Two 
qualities,  designated  BB  and  EM. 

FRAME   SPUN 

Spun  in  numbers  18  to  36 

SINGLE  :    Delivered  on  Cones,  Tubes,  Spools,  and  Section 

Beams,  and  in  Skeins  and  Ball  Warps. 
Two  OR  MORE  PLY:    Delivered  in  all  of  the^bove  forms. 
Two   OR   MORE    PLY   GASSED  :     Delivered   in    all  of  the 

above  forms. 

Frame  Yarns  are  made  in  three  qualities,  desig- 
nated CC,  DD,  and  EX. 

These  Frame  Spun  Yarns  are  used  in  an  immense 
variety  of  manufactures,  some  of  which  may  be 
enumerated  as  follows : 

Silk  Velvets  and  Plushes ;  Cotton  Velvets  and  Plushes  ; 
Silk  Fabrics  ;  Men's,  Women's,  and  Children's  Under- 
wear and  Hosiery;  Dress  Goods;  Cotton  and  Woolen 
Cloths,  Upholstery  ;  Webbings,  Laces,  Embroideries, 
Braids,  Electrical  Work,  Shoe  Threads,  Sewing 
Thread,  etc.,  etc. 

48 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

The  Nonquitt  Spinning  Company  confines  itself 
to  the  finer  qualities,  sizing  from  365  to  loos,  and 
its  new  mill  will  devote  its  great  number  of  spindles 
to  a  range  of  finer  numbers. 

NONQUITT   SPINNING   COMPANY'S 
SPECIALTIES 

FRAME    SPUN    COMBED    COTTON    YARNS 

SINGLE,  ON  CONES  :   For  Knitters. 

SINGLE,  IN  SKEINS:    For  Knitters  and  Weavers. 

SINGLE,  ON  SPOOLS  :    For  Weavers,  warp  and  weft. 

SINGLE,  ON  SECTION  BEAMS  :    For  Weavers. 

SINGLE,  IN  BALL  WARPS  :    For  Weavers,  warp  and  weft. 

PLY  YARN,  ON  CONES  :    For  Knitters. 

PLY    YARN,    IN    SKEINS  :    For    Knitters,    Weavers,    and 

Thread  Makers. 

PLY  YARN,  ON  SPOOLS  :    For  Weavers,  warp  and  weft. 
PLY  YARN,  ON  SECTION  BEAMS  :    For  Weavers. 
PLY  YARN,  IN   BALL  WARPS  :    For  Weavers,  warp  and 

weft. 

PLY,  GASSED  ON  CONES  :    For  Knitters  and  Weavers. 
PLY,  GASSED    IN    SKEINS  :    For    Knitters,  Weavers,  and 

Thread  Makers. 
PLY,  GASSED  IN  BALL  WARPS  :    For  Weavers,  warp  and 

weft. 

The  above  yarns  are  spun  in  all  numbers  from 
36  to  100  in  six  different  standard  qualities,  desig- 
nated as  SA,  A,  AX,  E,  EE,  SI 

There  is,  perhaps,  a  tendency  toward  finer  goods, 
a  tendency  that  grows  with  the  development  of 
higher  and  higher  technical  skill  and  more  and 
more  efficient  labor  in  America.  The  factor  of 
labor  cost  in  these  fine  goods  is  relatively  large  and 
49 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

for  this  the  protective  tariff  affords  a  needed 
shield. 

It  is  the  combed  yarns  of  these  famous  mills  that 
are  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  the  higher 
grades  of  cloth,  where  strength  and  evenness  of 
weave  are  indispensable.  But  these  yarns  are  util- 
ized for  other  things  than  cloth.  They  are  wrought 
into  the  better  grades  of  underwear,  into  gloves  and 
hosiery,  into  tapes,  braids,  lace  curtains,  and  em- 
broideries. Great  quantities  of  these  combed  yarns 
enter  into  the  manufacture  of  the  insulation  of  fine 
magnet  and  telephone  wires.  In  combination  with 
rubber  they  are  used  in  elastic  webbings  and  similar 
fabrics.  In  combination  with  silk  they  are  used  for 
velvet  upholstery,  umbrella  coverings,  linings,  etc. 
One  novel  purpose  which  these'  combed  yarns  serve 
is  in  the  manufacture  of  the  mantles  of  the  Wels- 
bach  burner,  and  another  is  in  the  weaving  of  the 
stout  tires  of  bicycles  and  automobiles.  In  fact,  if  one 
could  trace  in  all  its  different  lines  the  cotton  fibre 
from  the  field  to  its  final  use,  one  would  be  amazed 
at  its  ramifications  and  would  well  believe  it  to  be 
the  most  useful  as  well  as  the  cheapest  fibre  known 
to  man. 

We  have  considered  the  carded  yarns  of  the  South 
and  the  combed  yarns  of  the  North,  which  have  been 
put  through  the  carded  and  combing  processes,  and 
we  may  now  consider  a  class  of  yarns  which  have 
been  put  through  not  only  the  carding  and  combing 
processes,  but  a  still  further  process.  The  Arling- 
ton Mills,  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  not  only 
manufacture  the  finer  grades  of  combed  yarns  made 
5° 


. 

II 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

from  the  long  staple  American,  Egyptian,  and  Sea 
Island  cotton,  but  manufacture  also  certain  special 
yarns  which  will  be  mentioned.  Combed  yarns  at 
the  Arlington  Mills  are  bleached  or  dyed  into 
colors  or  mercerized  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
a  little  different  trade.  These  bleached,  dyed,  or 
mercerized  yarns  are  used  for  mufflers,  certain 
kinds  of  underwear,  the  finest  hosiery,  etc. 

Specialization  has  enabled  each  of  the  mills  repre- 
sented by  William  Whitman  &  Company  to  fit 
itself  with  the  particular  machinery  best  adapted 
for  skilled  and  successful  work  in  its  own  line. 
Moreover,  for  each  mill  are  carefully  selected  the 
grades  and  varieties  of  cotton  most  fitted  for  its  par- 
ticular purpose.  This  specialization  finally  makes 
it  possible  to  educate  the  operatives  along  certain 
definite  lines.  All  these  factors,  combined  with 
competent  and  progressive  management,  naturally 
secure  the  maximum  volume  of  production,  the 
most  exact  and  efficient  work,  and  the  most  uniform 
standard  of  excellence  of  product. 

We  have  mentioned  the  specialties  of  the  Mano- 
met  Mills  of  New  Bedford,  and  of  the  Nonquitt 
Spinning  Company  of  New  Bedford.  We  will 
mention  here  certain  specialties  of  the  Arlington 
Mills.  The  art  of  mercerizing  cotton  yarn  to  give 
it  a  silky  appearance  has  been  established  in  this 
country  but  about  twenty  years.  It  is  a  compara- 
tively new  art,  in  which  the  Arlington  Mills  have 
been  pioneers.  These  mills  were  among  the  first 
in  America,  if  not  the  very  first,  to  mercerize  yarns 
successfully  on  a  large  scale  for  the  trade.  To-day 
51 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

they  are  perhaps  the  largest  producers  of  mercerized 
yarns  in  the  world.  Their  great  capacity  is  now 
overtaxed,  and  for  this  reason  the  mercerizing  plant 
of  the  Mills  is  being  doubled  in  capacity.  For  a 
time  in  the  earlier  years  the  use  of  inferior  grades  of 
cotton  brought  mercerized  products  into  disrepute 
in  the  trade.  The  inferior  yarn  and  cotton  caused 
the  beautiful  silky  lustre  which  the  mercerizing  pro- 
cess gives  to  be  merely  temporary  or  unsatisfactory. 
From  the  outset  the  Arlington  Mills  acted  on  the 
principle  that  mercerized  yarns  and  fabrics  should  be 
made  only  from  the  best  grades  of  cotton,  so  selected 
and  treated  as  to  produce  the  highest  silkiness  and 
lustre.  Time  has  proved  beyond  a  doubt  the  cor- 
rectness of  this  principle.  The  Arlington  Mills  also 
bore  the  brunt  of  very  important  litigation  that  saved 
the  mercerizing  process  for  general  use,  instead  of 
surrendering  it  as  an  exclusive  privilege  to  a  close 
monopoly.  The  story  of  this  and  of  the  mercerizing 
process  we  have  embodied  in  a  separate  chapter. 

It  would  be  impossible  in  a  brief  space  to  describe 
the  diverse  special  yarns  manufactured  at  the  Arling- 
ton Mills.  To  suggest  to  the  lay  mind,  however,  the 
great  variety,  and  to  specify  with  some  exactness  for 
the  trade  the  different  yarns,  we  insert  a  list. 

To-day  we  are  confronted  with  the  highest  general 
level  of  cotton  prices  since  the  Civil  War.  The 
temptation  on  the  part  of  the  spinner  and  on  the 
part  of  the  user  is  strong  to  employ  cheap  materials. 
But  the  Arlington  Mills  adhere  and  will  continue  to 
adhere  to  their  previous  policy  of  choosing  the  very 
highest  grades  of  cotton  for  their  mercerized  yarns. 


o  ov  CD 

<M  -^  -* 


<\J    f\l    N   ^     <N    <N    <M    r\l 


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^•O 

!! 


*<* 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

ARLINGTON    MILLS    COMBED    COTTON 
YARN   SPECIALTIES 

UN  MERCERIZED    YARNS 
SINGLE  :     Bleached,    delivered     in    skeins    and    on    cones ; 

bleached  in  the  skein. 
PLY  :    Bleached,  delivered  in  skeins  and  on  cones  ;  bleached 

in  the  skein. 

The  above  are  made  especially  for  very  fine  under- 
wear and  are  unequalled. 

MERCERIZED    YARNS 
SINGLE  :    Delivered  on  cones. 
PLY  :    Delivered  in  warps  and  skeins  and  on  cones. 

MERCERIZED  AND  BLEACHED  YARNS 
PLY  :    Delivered  in  warps  and  skeins  and  on  cones. 

GASSED    AND    MERCERIZED    YARNS 
PLY  :    Delivered  in  warps  and  skeins  and  on  cones. 

GASSED,  MERCERIZED,  AND   BLEACHED   YARNS 
PLY  :    Delivered  in  warps  and  skeins  and  on  cones. 

MERCERIZED    AND    COLORED    YARNS 
PLY  :    Delivered  in  warps  and  skeins  and  on  cones. 

GASSED,   MERCERIZED,  AND   COLORED   YARNS 
PLY  :    Delivered  in  warps  and  skeins  and  on  cones. 

These  are  made  in  four  different  qualities,  desig- 
nated AM,  XL,  CE,  XA,  from  Special  Blends, 
Long  Stapled  American,  Egyptian,  and  Sea  Island 
Cotton. 

They  are  used  in  the  manufacture  of  high  grade 
woven    fabrics  —  men's,   women's,    and    children's 
underwear  and  hose ;    also  for  thread,  braids,  trim- 
mings, laces,  and  embroideries. 
53 


COTTON      YARN      DEPARTMENT 

Arlington  Mills  Mercerized  Yarns  are  used  as 
substitutes  for  silk  because  of  their  brilliant  lustre. 

With  these  bleached,  colored,  and  mercerized 
yarns  of  the  Arlington  Mills,  with  the  combed 
yarns  of  the  Manomet  Mills,  ranging  in  number 
from  8s  to  365,  with  the  fine  combed  yarns  of  the 
Nonquitt  Spinning  Company,  ranging  from  3 6s  to 
loos,  and  even  higher  numbers,  with  the  carded 
yarns  of  the  South  in  all  numbers  in  which  carded 
yarns  are  made,  the  Cotton  Yarn  Department  of 
William  Whitman  &  Company  is  equipped  to 
offer  in  quantity  the  yarns  that  are  used  for  almost 
every  manufacturing  purpose  throughout  the  United 
States.  Furthermore,  the  firm  is  prepared  to  offer 
each  special  kind  and  quality  of  yarn  as  the  product 
of  a  leading  specialist  in  that  yarn,  and  to  offer  all 
the  various  yarns  in  the  different  forms  required  by 
the  different  users.  All  of  the  mills  are  equipped 
to  supply  yarns  in  either  the  single  or  the  twisted 
forms,  and  put  up  in  any  of  the  ways  desired  by 
the  trade ;  in  skeins,  cones,  warps,  spools,  etc., 
made  from  all  different  grades  of  cotton.  It  is  the 
supplementing  of  special  yarns  into  one  broad  range 
that  makes  this  possible.  It  is  the  policy  of  the 
firm  in  requiring  each  mill  to  make  a  product  that 
does  not  conflict  with,  but  is  in  addition  to,  the 
product  of  another  mill  that  has  brought  the  firm 
the  ability  to  offer  all  yarns  for  all  trades. 


54 


NONQUITT  SPINNING 
"COMPANY 

Incorporated  in  jgo6,  under  the  laws  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts 

CAPITAL    STOCK,   $2, 400,000 

President's  Office     .     .      .     .      78   CHAUNCY   ST.,  BOSTON 
Treasurer's  Office  and  Mills,  NEW  BEDFORD,  MASSACHUSETTS 

OFFICERS 

WILLIAM  WHITMAN President 

LEONARD  C.  LAPHAM  ....  Treasurer 


DIRECTORS 

ARTHUR  T.  BRADLEE  LEONARD  C.  LAPHAM 

MALCOLM  CAMPBELL  CHARLES  W.  LEONARD 

WILLIAM  F.  DRAPER  RICHARD  S.  RUSSELL 

GEORGE  E.  KUNHARDT  GEORGE  M.  WHITIN 

WILLIAM  WHITMAN 


Clerk  of  the  Corporation 
J.  EARLE  PARKER 


Resident  Agent 
ANDREW  J.  CURRIER 


THE    EDDYSTONE    MFG.    CO. 


Incorporated  in  1895,  under  the  laivs  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania 


CAPITAL    STOCK,   $1,000,000 


Executive  Offices  .      ion    PENNSYLVANIA  BUILDING 

PHILADELPHIA,  PENN. 
Works    . EDDYSTONE,  PENN. 


OFFICERS 

W.   P.  SIMPSON President 

E.   K.  NELSON Vice-President 

W.   P.   SIMPSON Treasurer 

W.  F.   KEENAN Secretary 


DIRECTORS 

W.   P.   SIMPSON  W.   F.  KEENAN 

E.  K.   NELSON  S.  B.  BROWN 

T.   E.  FRAME 


ESTABLISHED    1842 


3    o 

'«»  2 

15 

en       J> 


^      ??    " 


PRINTED  GOODS  DEPARTMENT 


A  HE  Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company,  suc- 
cessor to  Wm.  Simpson  &  Sons  and  the  sole 
manufacturer  of  Simpson-Eddystone  fabrics,  markets 
its  output  through  this  department  of  the  firm  of 
William  Whitman  &  Company. 

Three  generations  of  Simpsons  have  made 
Simpson-Eddystone  Prints,  and  three  generations 
of  consumers  have  used  Simpson-Eddystone  Prints. 

William  Simpson,  Sr.,  the  founder  of  this  busi- 
ness, began  his  career  as  a  manufacturer  in  1836 
by  block  printing  silk  handkerchiefs.  He  started 
Calico  printing  in  1842. 

The  art  of  Calico  printing  is  "  as  old  as  the  hills  " 
and  its  history  proves  it  to  be  of  similar  stability. 
The  output  and  use  of  printed  cottons  has  greatly 
increased  from  ancient  to  modern  days,  at  times 
increasing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  the  ratio  of 
consumption  of  this  useful  fabric  bids  fair  to  grow 
in  future  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  following  is  a  part  of  a  graphic  treatise  that 
appeared  in  1883  on  the  subject  of  Calico  printing, 
compiled  by  Messrs.  George  Ripley  and  Charles 
A.  Dana: 

CALICO    PRINTING 

"The  term  calico  (from  Calicut  on  the  Malabar  Coast, 
whence  it  was  first  imported)  is  applied  in  England  to  white 
or  unprinted  cotton  cloth,  but  in  the  United  States  to 
cotton  cloth  upon  which  colored  patterns  are  impressed 

57 


PRINTED     GOODS     DEPARTMENT 

with  the  use  of  dyes,  technically  called  prints.  The  effect 
produced  by  the  printing  process  is  like  that  of  the  colored 
designs  brought  out  by  the  loom,  but  with  much  greater 
economy  of  time  and  labor. 

The  origin  of  this  art,  like  that  of  dyeing,  is  traced  back 
to  very  remote  antiquity,  and  in  some  form  or  other 
appears  to  have  been  practised  by  nations  of  little  skill  in 
other  respects.  The  aborigines  of  northern  America  stain 
their  garments  of  different  colors,  which  is  a  rude  method 
of  calico  printing ;  while  the  natives  of  Mexico,  at  the 
time  of  its  conquest  by  Cortes,  produced  garments  of 
cotton  adorned  with  figures  in  black,  blue,  red,  yellow,  and 
green  colors. 

Pliny's  account  of  the  process  practised  by  the  ancient 
Egyptians  is  particularly  interesting  for  showing  the  skill 
attained  by  them  in  the  art,  as  also  for  describing  with  great 
conciseness  the  principle  of  the  common  operations  : 

1  They  take  white  cloths,  and  apply  to  them,  not  colors, 
but  certain  drugs  which  have  the  power  of  absorbing  or 
drinking  in  color;  and  in  the  cloth  so  operated  on  there  is 
not  the  smallest  appearance  of  any  dye  or  tincture.  These 
cloths  are  then  put  into  a  caldron  of  some  coloring  matter, 
scalding  hot,  and  after  having  remained  a  time  are  with- 
drawn, all  stained  and  painted  in  various  hues.  This  is 
indeed  a  wonderful  process,  seeing  that  there  is  in  the  said 
caldron  only  one  kind  of  coloring  material ;  yet  from  it  the 
cloth  acquires  this  and  that  color,  and  the  boiling  liquor 
itself  also  changes  according  to  the  quality  and  nature  of 
the  dye-absorbing  drugs  which  were  at  first  laid  on  the  white 
cloth,  and  these  stains  or  colors  are,  moreover,  so  firmly 
fixed  as  to  be  incapable  of  removal  by  washing.  If  the 
scalding  liquor  were  composed  of  various  tinctures  and 
colors,  it  would  doubtless  have  confounded  them  all  in  one 
on  the  cloth  ;  but  here  one  liquor  gives  a  variety  of  colors 
according  to  the  drugs  previously  applied.  The  colors  of 
the  cloths  thus  prepared  are  always  more  firm  and  durable 
than  if  the  cloths  were  not  dipped  into  the  boiling  caldron.' 

58 


PRINTED     GOODS     DEPARTMENT 

In  the  different  countries  of  India  the  art  is  practised  with 
various  degrees  of  skill.  In  some  the  patterns  are  drawn 
with  a  pencil  upon  the  fabric;  while  in  Mesopotamia,  as 
stated  by  Mr.  Buckingham,  blocks  are  employed  for  pro- 
ducing an  impression,  as  practised  by  the  English  block- 
printers.  The  Chinese  have  long  used  the  same  process. 
The  large  chintz  counterpanes,  called  palampoors,  of  an 
ancient  East  India  fabric,  are  prepared  by  placing  on  the 
cloth  a  pattern  of  wax  and  dyeing  the  parts  not  so  protected. 
From  India  it  appears  the  art  was  introduced  at  an  early 
period  into  Europe ;  but  it  never  became  of  much  impor- 
tance till  some  time  in  the  iyth  century,  when  Augsburg 
became  celebrated  for  its  printed  cottons  and  linens.  From 
this  time  the  art  spread  into  France,  Germany,  Switzerland, 
and  Great  Britain,  being  introduced  into  London  about  the 
year  1676.  Here,  being  greatly  restricted  by  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  silk  and  woollen  weavers,  it  made  but  slow 
progress. 

In  1720  the  wearing  of  printed  calico  was  prohibited  by 
act  of  parliament,  under  a  penalty  of  .£5  for  each  offence 
on  the  part  of  the  wearer  and  of  £20  on  that  of  the  seller. 

In  1730  it  was  allowed  to  be  printed,  provided  the  warp 
was  of  linen  and  the  weft  only  of  cotton  ;  but  even  then  it 
was  subject  to  an  onerous  tax  of  6d  per  square  yard. 

In  1774  the  restriction  upon  the  manufacture  was  re- 
pealed ;  but  a  tax  of  3d  per  yard  was  continued,  which  was 
increased  in  1806  to  3-i/id. 

In  1831  this  duty  was  repealed;  and  the  art,  which 
had  sustained  itself  under  all  the  attempts  to  keep  it  down, 
now  that  it  was  relieved  of  the  burden  of  paying  an  average 
of  50  per  cent,  on  the  goods  produced  for  home  consump- 
tion, suddenly  received  a  great  impetus,  so  that  in  place  of 
8,300,000  pieces  of  goods  manufactured  in  1830,  the  pro- 
duction was  increased  within  20  years  to  about  20,000,000. 
The  character  of  the  goods  was  greatly  improved,  as  well 
as  the  processes  and  machinery  ;  while  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion was  much  reduced  by  the  enormous  quantities  manu- 

59 


PRINTED     GOODS     DEPARTMENT 

factured.  The  process  of  printing  had  been  by  wooden 
blocks,  each  one  of  which  of  a  few  inches  square  was 
applied  by  hand,  impressing  a  portion  of  the  figure  upon  the 
surface  in  a  single  color,  and  another  block  subsequently 
applied  in  the  same  spot  to  fill  in  another  portion  of  the 
figure  in  another  color.  This  process  was  soon  nearly 
superseded  by  immense  machines  constructed  with  the  great- 
est ingenuity,  capable  of  producing  15  or  even  20  colors  at 
once  with  the  same  precision  as  in  the  case  of  the  simpler 
machines  which  printed  only  two  or  three  colors  at  once, 
while  at  the  same  time  600  or  700  times  as  many  pieces 
were  produced  per  day  as  if  they  had  been  blocked  sepa- 
rately with  the  same  number  of  workmen  employed. 

The  art  has  been  perfected  by  the  highest  chemical  talent, 
as  well  as  by  the  ingenuity  of  the  mechanician  and  the  taste 
of  the  artist.  Artists  or  pattern  designers  are  especially 
employed,  whose  constant  occupation  is  to  furnish  new  pat- 
terns ;  from  which  the  printer  selects  those  he  judges  most 
likely  to  be  popular.  The  French  artists  are  admitted  to 
produce  finer  designs  than  the  English,  while  the  latter  nation 
claims  a  superiority  in  the  mechanical  departments  of  calico 
printing." 

During  the  twenty-six  years  elapsing  since  the 
above  treatise  appeared,  giant  strides  have  been  made 
in  the  calico  printing  industry.  Immense  and  costly 
printing  establishments  have  been  built  and  equipped 
in  all  civilized  countries.  To-day  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  men,  women,  and  children  are  engaged  in 
producing  calico,  and  its  consumers  are  numbered 
by  millions. 

Engineers  and  inventors  of  renown  have  devoted 
their  energies  to  the  improvement  of  old  and  the 
creation  of  new  machinery.  The  coloring  and 
finishing  of  cotton  fabrics  has  been  completely 
revolutionized. 

60 


PRINTED     GOODS     DEPARTMENT 

"The  Rddystone  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany s  constant  experience  and  practice 
during  sixty-seven  years  embraces  the 
most  remarkable  period  of  progress  and 
development  in  the  entire  history  of 
calico  printing.  In  age,  experience,  organization,  per- 
fection of  equipment  and  actual  accomplishment  it 
stands  first  in  its  chosen  field  in  this  country,  and  its 
staple  and  novelty  lines  have  earned  an  honored  and 
enviable  reputation. 

Artists,  chemists,  and  engineers  have  successfully 
striven  to  beautify  and  improve  the  Simpson- 
Eddystone  products.  Many  dress  goods  designers 
capable  of  producing  exquisite  patterns  especially 
adapted  for  Simpson-Eddystone  fabrics  form  part 
of  the  regular  organization.  The  complete  revolu- 
tion in  the  source  of  textile  coloring  matter,  whereby 
the  old  vegetable  colors  were  replaced  by  the  superior 
coal  tar  colors,  has  been  of  great  value  in  Simpson- 
Eddystone  fast  color  combinations. 

The  Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company's 
laboratory  has  evolved  improved  processes  and 
methods  for  treating  and  manipulating  prints,  and 
has  trained  specialists  known  as  "Colorists"  to  com- 
bine and  blend  colors  in  a  striking  and  effective 
manner.  The  development  of  the  art  of  merceriz- 
ing (silk  finishing  cotton  fabrics)  has  been  adopted 
and  applied  to  the  finish  of  certain  Simpson-Eddystone 
lines. 

Simpson-Eddystone  quality  ta-day  is  the  condensed 
result  of  sixty-seven  years  of  invaluable  cumulative 
experience  of  the  Simpson  family ',  whose  members  for 
61 


PRINTED     GOODS     DEPARTMENT 

three  successive  generations  have  successfully  devoted 
themselves  to  the  task  of  improving  the  product  bearing 
their  name. 

In  addition  to  the  celebrated,  long  established, 
and  well  known  staple  lines  of  absolutely  fast  color 
prints,  known  as  Simpson-Eddystone  Solid  Blacks, 
Silver  Grays,  Black  and  Whites,  and  Shepherd  Plaids, 
numerous  other  lines  have  been  produced  noted  for 
their  striking  novelty,  beauty  of  designs,  brilliancy 
and  fastness  of  color,  fine  fabric  and  finish. 

Among  the  meritorious  lines  of  to-day  bearing 
the  Simpson-Eddystone  ticket  are  the  following: 

Silk  Novelties  embody  the  latest  Parisian  designs 
found  only  in  the  very  finest  class  of  goods. 

Velvettes  are  superior  to  the  best  known  lines  of 
outing  flannels,  being  distinguished  by  brightness 
and  fastness  of  coloring  and  clearness  of  white. 

The  high  grade  Silkalines  and  Silk  Finish  Robes 
made  by  the  Company  enjoy  an  established  position 
and  an  ever  increasing  demand,  because  of  their  real 
merit.  They  are  characterized  by  their  rich  designs, 
harmonious  color  effects,  fine  texture,  and  lustrous 
finish. 

The  unmistakable  seal  of  public  approval  proves 
beyond  question  the  sterling  quality  of  Simpson- 
Eddystone  fabrics. 

The  great  range  and  variety  of  these  fabrics  and 
the  diversity  of  product  of  The  Eddystone  Manu- 
facturing Company  is  further  illustrated  by  the 
additional  lines  of  fabric  mentioned  in  the  follow- 
ing list. 


PRINTED     GOODS     DEPARTMENT 


SIMPSON-EDDYSTONE 


MADEIRA    C  LOTH 
&  MADRAS  PERCALES 
L      I     N      0      N      S 
SIM      SILK 
QUAKER    GRAYS 
DARK   NOVELTIES 
ELYSIAN  ART  ROBES 
CAMEO  BLACK  &  GRAYS 
MERITO  4/4  PERCALES 


EMPIRE    SATINES 
INDIGO   LIGHT    BLUES 
L     U      M     I     N     E 
CARMINIOS 
IABELETTES 
SCARLETTA   CLOTH 
FAST  HAZEL  BROWNS 
ALL  INDIGO  INDINES 
CREDITA  4/4  PERCALES 


The  Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company  pro- 
duces annually  over  60,000  miles  of  staple  and 
novelty  lines,  consisting  of  dress  goods  and  draperies, 
each  line  requiring  from  eleven  to  twenty-seven  dis- 
tinct processes  to  perfect,  and  each  particular  process 
demanding  careful  planning  and  execution  to  produce 
the  famous  Simpson-Eddystone  quality. 

The  name  carries  the  ring  of  accomplishment 
and  is  a  guarantee  of  high  quality. 


'SIMPSON-EDDYSTONE"    ON    PRINTS 
IS    LIKE    STERLING    ON    SILVER 


NASHAWENA    MILLS 

Incorporated  in  iqog,  under  the  laivs  of  the 
Common-wealth  of  Massachusetts 

CAPITAL    STOCK,   12,500,000 

President's  Office     ....      78  CHAUNCY  ST.,  BOSTON 
Treasurer's  Office  and  Mills  NEW  BEDFORD,  MASSACHUSETTS 

OFFICERS 

WILLIAM  WHITMAN President 

WILLIAM   B.  GARDNER       ....      Treasurer 

DIRECTORS 

GEORGE  E.  BULLARD  GEORGE  E.  KUNHARDT 

I.  TUCKER  BURR  CHARLES  W.  LEONARD 

WILLIAM  F.  DRAPER  RICHARD  S.  RUSSELL 

ROBERT  H.  GARDINER  GEORGE  M.  WHITIN 

WILLIAM  B.  GARDNER  MALCOLM  D.  WHITMAN 
WILLIAM  WHITMAN 

Clerk  of  the  Corporation 
J.  EARLE  PARKER 

Superintendent 
JOHN  L.  BURTON 


1 

2 
2  f 

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1! 
I! 


GRAY   GOODS    DEPARTMENT 


J.  HE  term  "gray  goods"  applies  generally  to 
fabrics  which  have  not  been  bleached  or  dyed  or 
subjected  to  any  process  after  weaving.  They  are 
sold  in  the  condition  in  which  they  come  from  the 
looms.  Certain  gray  goods,  such  as  sheetings,  drills, 
and  ducks,  are  frequently  retailed  in  their  gray  or 
natural  state.  The  gray  goods  marketed  by  William 
Whitman  &  Company,  however,  include  only  those 
cloths  that  are  manufactured  especially  for  convert- 
ers, who  have  them  dyed,  bleached,  or  printed  before 
they  reach  the  consumer. 

Of  the  different  products  marketed  by  the  Gray 
Goods  Department,  the  varied  fabrics  of  the  Nasha- 
wena  Mills  deserve  first  mention.  They  will  be 
many  and  great  in  quantity,  as  this  mill  is  the  largest 
single  cotton  mill  ever  built  at  one  time  in  the 
United  States.  Primarily  the  Nashawena  Mills 
were  incorporated  to  manufacture  the  highest  grades 
of  fine  cotton  fabrics,  and  to  attain  perfection  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  that  manufacture.  With  this 
end  in  view  no  effort  has  been  spared  to  have  the 
buildings  of  the  best  construction  for  the  proper 
light,  and  the  proper  atmospheric  conditions,  and 
to  have  installed  also  the  best  weaving  machinery, 
the  best  spinning  machinery,  and  the  best  means  of 
creating  power  and  of  transmitting  it  evenly  through- 
out the  mill.  The  result  is  that  the  plant  of  the 

65 


GRAY      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

Nashawena  Mills  stands  to-day  as  a  model  mill  of 
its  kind,  equipped  with  every  improvement  known 
to  textile  science.  It  is  new  from  beginning  to  end. 
It  will  not  be  handicapped  in  any  of  its  opera- 
tions by  a  single  machine  that  is  not  absolutely 
up  to  date. 

In  the  varied  processes  of  the  manufacture  of  fine 
cotton  fabrics,  the  spinning  of  the  yarns  woven  into 
the  fabrics  is  as  important  in  attaining  a  high  stand- 
ard of  perfection  as  the  process  of  weaving.  The 
management  of  the  Nashawena  Mills  has  had  a  long 
experience  in  the  art  of  spinning  fine  cotton  yarns. 
Also  the  plant  is  in  a  splendid  locality  on  the 
Acushnet  River  in  the  city  of  New  Bedford,  where 
the  atmospheric  conditions  are  as  well  adapted  for 
fine  cotton  spinning  and  weaving  as  those  of  any 
other  locality  in  this  country. 

An  ideal  location,  an  ideal  equipment,  and  a 
management  with  a  long  experience,  not  only  in  the 
art  of  weaving  fine  cotton  fabrics,  but  in  the  art  of 
spinning  the  yarns  woven  into  those  fabrics,  are 
special  advantages  that  should  enable  this  large  mill 
to  take  the  lead. 

The  fine  cotton  fabrics  of  the  Nashawena  Mills 
comprise  almost  every  variety  that  is  sold  in  the 
gray  or  natural  state  to  the  converter.  These  fabrics 
are  made  in  widths  from  27  to  45  inches  from  yarns 
spun  from  long-staple  American,  Sea  Island,  or 
Egyptian  cotton.  They  are  specially  constructed 
for  the  finish  that  may  be  required  and  for  the 
various  special  uses  to  which  they  may  be  put. 
66 


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mm 


GRAY      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

The  Plain  or  Staple  goods  include  Lawns,  India 
Linons,  Sateens,  and  Twills  where  the  construc- 
tions have  been  adopted  by  the  converting  trade  as 
the  most  suitable  for  their  purposes.  In  this  class 
of  goods  perfection  of  fabric  is  of  the  utmost 
importance. 

The  Fancy  cotton  goods  include  Venetians, 
Dimities,  Fancy  Checks  and  Stripes,  Dobbies,  Leno 
and  Jacquard  weaves,  and  all  kinds  of  novelties. 
Special  attention  is  given  to  mercerized  fabrics, 
which  are  either  mercerized  after  being  woven  or 
are  woven  from  mercerized  yarns.  In  these  goods 
great  care  has  to  be  taken  in  preparing  the  yarns  so 
that  the  fabrics  will  retain  permanently  the  attract- 
ive, lustrous,  and  silky  appearance  imparted  by  the 
mercerizing  process. 

Another  important  class  of  fabrics  manufactured 
by  the  Nashawena  Mills  includes  silk-and-cotton 
goods.  The  industry  of  manufacturing  these  goods 
is  in  its  infancy  in  the  United  States,  but  it  gives 
promise  of  a  healthy  growth.  During  the  past  seven 
years  the  increased  demand  for  silk  and  cotton  goods 
has  been  a  conspicuous  feature  of  the  development 
of  the  textile  industries.  These  fabrics,  often  called 
silk-filled  goods,  are  made  from  fine-spun  yarns  and 
filaments  of  silk.  When  finished  they  have  the 
appearance  of  all-silk  goods.  They  wear  well 
and  are  reasonable  in  price.  For  many  purposes 
they  are  as  serviceable  and  acceptable  as  all-silk 
fabrics. 

As  silk  is  such  an  important  raw  material  in  this 


GRAY      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

branch  of  the  business,  some  description  of  its 
production  may  be  of  interest. 

Silk  is  the  product  of  the  silkworm,  which,  at  a 
certain  stage  of  its  existence,  discharges  two  filaments 
in  a  semi-fluid  condition  from  glands  near  its  head. 
These  filaments  unite  as  they  are  discharged  and 
form  one  thread,  which  hardens  immediately  on  ex- 
posure to  the  atmosphere.  The  worm  winds  the 
thread  around  itself  until  it  is  entirely  enveloped  in 
what  is  called  a  cocoon,  which  contains  on  an  average 
about  a  half  mile  of  thread.  Three  weeks  after 
the  cocoon  is  finished  the  worm  changes  to  a  moth, 
forcing  its  way  out  of.  the  cocoon  by  cutting  or 
breaking  some  of  the  threads.  To  prevent  this, 
every  cocoon  not  intended  for  breeding  purposes  is 
placed  in  a  steam  heater  to  stifle  the  chrysalis.  The 
filaments  of  silk  are  then  in  condition  to  be  unwound 
from  the  cocoon  and  reeled  into  skeins.  The  skeins 
weigh  from  one  to  several  ounces,  and  are  packed 
in  bundles  called  books,  weighing  from  five  to  ten 
pounds.  The  books  are  then  made  up  into  bales, 
weighing  from  100  to  160  pounds,  the  form  in  which 
raw  silk  is  generally  shipped  for  commercial  use. 

Most  silk  is  in  a  sense  cultivated.  The  mulberry 
trees  on  which  the  silkworm  feeds  are  scientifically 
grown  and  protected,  and  the  silkworm  is  carefully 
nurtured.  Most  Canton,  Japanese,  and  Italian  silks 
are  grown  under  these  conditions.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  considerable  amount  of  wild  silk  used  in  the 
cotton  and  silk  industry.  This  is  known  as  Tussah, 
coming  chiefly  from  China  and  having  a  highly 
68 


GRAY      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

lustrou?  aspect  that  adapts  it  particularly  for  use 
as  filling  for  fine  goods.  Another  silk  is  known  as 
Doppioni.  This  is  a  heavy,  rough  silk.  It  hap- 
pens in  certain  instances  that  two  silk  worms  weave 
their  cocoons  together.  This  causes  the  silk  or  fila- 
ments of  the  separate  cocoons  to  adhere  at  certain 
points,  and  wherever  this  adhesion  takes  place  a  slub 
or  rough  spot  in  the  thread  is  created.  This  makes 
the  Doppioni  silk  very  uneven,  and  it  is  used  to  give 
a  rough  effect  in  cotton  and  silk  fabrics,  resembling 
the  well-known  Pongee  and  Rajah  textures. 

The  chief  sources  of  supply  of  the  silks  used  in 
the  cotton  and  silk  industry  are  China,  Japan,  and 
Italy.  In  spite  of  many  years  of  effort,  the  pro- 
duction of  raw  silk  has  never  proved  commercially 
successful  in  the  United  States,  and  practically  all 
of  the  silk  consumed  here  is  imported  from  other 
countries.  Therefore,  the  rate  of  progress  of  the 
silk  manufacturing  industry  as  a  whole  may  be 
measured  by  the  increase  of  the  imports  of  silk, 
which  have  grown  with  astonishing  rapidity  from 
1868  until  the  present  time.  The  imports  of  raw 
silk  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1909,  were  49  per 
cent  greater  than  those  for  the  preceding  year,  and 
the  total  shipments  of  Tussah  silk  from  Shanghai 
during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1909,  were  nearly 
double  those  of  the  preceding  year,  and  50  per 
cent  in  excess  of  the  yearly  average  from  1904  to 
1907.  The  so-called  cotton  and  silk  industry  in 
this  country  has  developed  a  further  market  for  the 
silks  of  the  world. 


GRAY      GOODS      DEPARTMENT 

The  Nashawena  Mills  are  equipped  to  manufac- 
ture every  variety  of  silk-filled  goods,  and  will  be 
an  important  factor  in  this  new  industry.  All  kinds 
of  novelties  and  special  designs  will  be  made  in 
these  fabrics,  just  as  they  are  made  in  the  all-cotton 
goods  already  described. 

A  very  important  feature  of  the  Nashawena  busi- 
ness is  special  contract  work  in  all  the  various 
fabrics  which  we  have  mentioned.  Special  fabrics 
are  made  up  in  accordance  with  the  patterns  of 
customers  and  confined  exclusively  to  those  cus- 
tomers. Attention  is  devoted  to  designing  fancy 
patterns  and  novelty  weaves.  Special  samples  are 
made  up  in  accordance  with  the  suggestions  of 
purchasers,  and  designs  of  the  cloth  are  reserved 
altogether  for  those  purchasers.  Skilled  designers 
carry  out  the  ideas  of  customers  in  the  various 
fabrics,  and  the  individuality  of  each  customer  as 
to  taste  or  design  with  regard  to  any  specialties  is 
preserved  as  far  as  possible. 

In  addition  to  the  Nashawena  fabrics  the  Gray 
Goods  Department  markets  the  entire  production 
of  the  Calhoun  Mills,  of  Calhoun  Falls,  South 
Carolina.  These  mills  were  planned  to  spin  their 
own  yarns  from  cotton  grown  principally  in  the  sur- 
rounding country,  and  to  weave  these  yarns  into 
plain  staple  fabrics.  It  has  been  the  aim  of  the 
management  to  specialize  on  one  or  two  construc- 
tions, with  the  idea  of  perfecting  their  manufacture. 
The  result  is  that  the  fabrics  have  proved  to  be  of 
uniformly  high  standard,  owing  to  the  quality  of  the 
70 


I 

M 


GRAY     GOODS     DEPARTMENT 

yarn  as  well  as  the  careful  weaving.  The  demand 
for  the  Calhoun  cloths  has  grown,  and  to  meet  that 
demand  the  capacity  of  the  mills  is  now  being 
increased. 

These  gray  cloths  are  sold  to  converters,  who 
bleach,  dye,  or  print  them  into  many  different 
finished  fabrics.  The  finished  fabrics  in  their  differ- 
ent forms  are  used  for  almost  every  kind  of  light 
cotton  article. 


EVOLUTION  OF  AMERICAN 
DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 


1  HE  art  of  wool  manufacturing,  in  its  present 
varied  and  attractive  aspects,  is  altogether  a  modern 
development  in  the  United  States.  Up  to  the  Civil 
War  the  industry  had  found  only  a  scant  and  pre- 
carious foothold.  Take,  for  example,  such  a  fabric 
as  bunting,  used  for  dress  goods  as  well  as  for  flags, 
pennants,  and  signals  —  even  as  late  as  1865  this 
material  had  scarcely  been  produced  at  all  in  America. 
As  the  late  Dr.  John  L.  Hayes,  first  Secretary  of 
the  National  Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers, 
said  in  a  speech  in  that  year,  1865,  at  Philadelphia: 
"  To  our  shame  be  it  spoken,  all  our  flags  are  grown, 
spun,  woven,  and  dyed  in  England,  and  on  the  last  Fourth 
of  July  the  proud  American  ensigns,  which  floated  over 
every  national  ship,  post  and  fort,  and  every  patriotic  home, 
flaunted  forth  upon  the  breeze  the  industrial  dependence  of 
America  on  England." 

This  was  true  not  only  of  bunting,  but  of  the 
lighter  woolen  fabrics  in  general  —  they  were  brought 
from  Europe  because  it  was  believed  that  there  was 
neither  the  machinery  nor  the  technical  skill  to  make 
them  here.  Dr.  Hayes  in  this  same  address  spoke 
of  an  association  of  patriotic  ladies  formed  in  Wash- 
ington in  the  gloomiest  days  of  the  war,  who  pledged 
themselves  to  wear  nothing  but  American  fabrics, 
and  were  surprised  and  mortified  to  discover  the  ex- 
tremely meagre  range  of  suitable  worsted  dress  goods 
of  native  production. 

73 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

There  has  been  a  great,  significant  change  since 
then,  and  it  may  be  interesting  to  review  briefly  the 
evolution  of  the  dress  goods  industry  in  America. 
Throughout  the  period  from  1845  to  1850,  two 
favorite  fabrics  imported  from  France  and  enjoying 
a  wide  popularity  in  this  country  were  mousseline 
delaines,  22  inches  wide,  and  cashmeres  40  to  42 
inches  wide,  made  entirely  of  fine,  soft  wool  —  the 
delaines  were  produced  in  both  solid  and  printed 
colors.  Mindful  of  the  demand  for  these  French 
goods,  Mr.  William  Courtis,  an  American  partner 
in  the  commission  house  of  Thornton,  Firth  & 
Company,  of  Bradford  and  Manchester,  suggested 
to  English  manufacturers  that  they  make  a  fabric 
to  be  known,  Anglicized,  as  muslin  delaine,  in  imi- 
tation of  the  French  fabric,  but  having  a  cotton  in- 
stead of  worsted  warp  and  a  somewhat  coarser  grade 
of  wool  for  the  filling;  in  other  words,  a  stronger, 
cheaper  fabric,  similar  in  general  effect  to  the  French 
article,  but  capable  of  being  sold  at  a  much  lower 
price.  This  fabric  was  made  in  different  textures 
for  different  seasons,  the  lighter  being  called  barege 
delaines,  challies,  Persian  delaines,  or  Persian  cloths. 
These  English-made  fabrics  in  their  turn  gained 
great  popularity  among  the  women  of  America,  and 
the  large  sales  brought  large  profit  to  the  transat- 
lantic manufacturers. 

Naturally,  American  manufacturers,  though  their 
art  was  at  that  time  rather  feebly  developed,  began 
to  ask  why  they  could  not  gain  some  of  this  profit 
for  themselves.  The  honor  of  being  the  pioneer  in 
this  important  undertaking  belongs  to  John  Marland 
74 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

of  Ballardvale,  Massachusetts,  in  whose  mill  were 
made  the  first  delaines,  printed  or  dyed,  that  were 
produced  in  America.  The  wool  was  combed  by 
hand  ;  the  cloth  was  printed  first  on  blocks  and  then 
on  the  machines  of  the  Hamilton  Manufacturing 
Company  at  Lowell.  But  though  an  ambitious  and 
progressive  manufacturer,  Mr.  Marland  was  not  a 
wealthy  one,  and  there  was  a  stubborn  prejudice 
against  American-made  fabrics  to  overcome  —  a 
prejudice  that  even  in  these  later  and  more  en- 
lightened days  has  not  entirely  vanished.  So  the 
pioneer  undertaking  of  Mr.  Marland  failed.  But 
the  effort  was  repeated  by  other  manufacturing 
concerns  with  equal  bravery  and  more  abundant 
resources. 

The  Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Company  of  Man- 
chester, New  Hampshire,  equipped  a  small  mill  at 
Hooksett  with  two  hundred  looms  and  began  the 
production  of  delaines,  which  were  printed  at  Green- 
wich, Rhode  Island.  Another  and  a  larger  estab- 
lishment for  the  manufacture  of  delaines  —  the 
Manchester  Mills  —  was  meanwhile  founded  by 
stockholders  of  the  Amoskeag  Company.  At  first 
only  carded  wool  was  used,  but  when  the  combing 
machines  succeeded  the  hand  process  in  England 
and  France  they  were  promptly  introduced  in  Man- 
chester. The  Hamilton  Woolen  Company  of 
Southbridge,  Massachusetts,  which  had  been  manu- 
facturing men's  wear,  transformed  its  factory  into 
a  dress  goods  mill  for  the  making  of  delaines,  and 
in  1853  the  Pacific  Mills  at  Lawrence,  Massachu- 
setts, were  organized  for  a  similar  purpose. 
75 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

These  American-made  dress  goods  soon  com- 
manded a  wide  market  in  this  country.  They  were 
attractive  and  durable,  and  for  many  years  proved 
to  be  the  leading  dress  goods  fabrics  for  the  great 
majority  of  American  purchasers.  The  first  Morrill 
tariff  act,  produced  not  by  the  Civil  War,  but  by 
the  depression  and  distress  and  the  loss  of  revenue 
following  the  disastrous  "  downward  revision  "  of 
1857,  gave  to  American  manufacturers  a  more  ade- 
quate protection.  This  Morrill  tariff,  which  was 
signed  by  President  Buchanan  on  March  2,  1861, 
and  was  an  avowed  protective  measure,  designed  to 
lessen  the  importation  of  foreign  goods,  levied  a 
duty  "on  all  delaines,  cashmere  delaines,  muslin  de- 
laines, barege  delaines,  composed  wholly  or  in  part 
of  wool,  and  on  all  other  goods  of  similar  descrip- 
tion." Mr.  William  E.  Webster,  to  whose  long 
and  intimate  knowledge  of  the  dress  goods  industry 
we  are  indebted  for  many  of  the  facts  set  forth  here, 
was  then  the  United  States  appraiser  of  merchandise 
at  the  port  of  Boston.  Though  the  phraseology  of 
the  new  law  was  somewhat  indefinite,  Mr.  Webster, 
as  appraiser,  construed  it  to  include  all  goods  made 
of  the  same  materials  and  used  for  the  same  purposes 
as  delaines,  as  goods  of  similar  description  to  delaines. 
This  fortunate  interpretation,  of  such  momentous 
consequence  to  American  industry,  was  approved  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  sustained  by  the 
courts.  This  provision  of  law  not  only  increased 
the  Federal  revenue  at  a  most  opportune  time, 
but  incidentally  afforded  protection  and  encour- 
agement to  American  manufacturers  in  an  im- 
76 


EVOLUTION    OF    DRESS    GOODS    INDUSTRY 

portant  art,  which  has  now  grown  to  splendid 
proportions. 

But  this  American  success  has  been  hard  won. 
When  the  English  manufacturers  realized  that  they 
had  lost  the  American  market  for  the  ordinary 
delaines,  they  turned  their  attention  to  stripes  and 
plaids  made  from  dyed  yarns,  and  also  to  a  piece- 
dyed  twilled  cloth  made  with  a  cotton  warp  and 
worsted  filling  and  known  as  Coburg,  a  clever  imita- 
tion of  the  French  worsted  cashmere.  These  goods 
competed  severely  with  the  American  delaines,  and 
our  manufacturers  were  compelled  to  turn  their 
attention  to  the  newer  fabrics  or  surrender  the 
market  to  the  foreigners. 

There  were  six  exhibitors  of  American  dress  goods 
at  the  American  Institute  Exhibition  of  1869,  both 
the  Pacific  Mills  and  the  Arlington  Mills  among 
them,  and  it  is  significant  of  the  difficulties  with 
which  the  industry  was  even  then  contending  that 
of  the  other  four  exhibitors  three  subsequently  failed. 
There  were  not  only  delaines,  but  serges,  reps,  pop- 
lins, and  Coburgs  in  these  exhibits,  but  not  a  piece 
of  men's  wear  worsteds  or  white  goods.  No  white 
goods  had  been  made  here  prior  to  1869,  but  the 
development  of  the  white  goods  and  men's  wear 
worsted  industry  began  simultaneously  in  the  year 
following.  About  the  year  1870  the  Washington 
Mills  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  undertook  the 
manufacture  of  all-wool  plaids  made  of  fine  yarns 
in  imitation  of  the  French  goods.  Technically  the 
experiment  was  a  success  ;  the  quality  of  the  Ameri- 
can fabrics  was  admirable.  But  at  that  time  the 
77 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

mills  could  not  compete  with  the  French  in  the 
matter  of  cost.  Now,  however,  the  production  of 
these  fine,  all-wool  goods  is  firmly  established  in 
the  United  States,  and  American  manufacturers,  the 
Arlington  Mills  among  them,  have  attained  a  very 
high  standard  of  excellence. 

When  knit  fabrics  superseded  for  underwear  the 
twilled  flannel,  which  had  long  been  used  for  that 
purpose,  woolen  manufacturers  turned  their  attention 
to  plain  woven  flannel  in  plain  colors,  called  ladies' 
cloths  and  tricots,  and  to  stripes  and  plaids.  These 
goods  are  still  worn  to  a  considerable  extent,  and 
the  fine,  light-weight  broadcloth,  used  for  ladies' 
wear,  is  produced  here  in  competition  with  the  best 
foreign  fabrics. 

It  is  the  distinction  of  the  Arlington  Mills  to 
have  been  the  first  to  establish  on  a  large  scale  in 
this  country  the  manufacture  of  black  alpacas, 
mohairs,  and  brilliantines,  though  at  about  the  same 
time  similar  goods  of  fine  quality  were  produced  by 
the  Farr  Alpaca  Company  of  Holyoke,  Massachu- 
setts. Black  alpaca  of  English  manufacture  had 
come  into  large  use  in  the  United  States,  following 
delaines.  This  alpaca  was  an  eminently  serviceable 
fabric,  fit  for  almost  all  occasions.  It  soon  acquired 
the  widest  popularity.  Strong  efforts  were  made  to 
reproduce  the  English  fabric  in  this  country,  but  it 
was  a  perplexing  task  to  recreate  the  color,  the 
lustre,  the  finish,  and  all  the  distinctive  English 
characteristics. 

English  manufacturers  insisted  that  the  fabric 
never  could  be  made  here,  and  it  had  obtained  such 
78 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

a  hold  upon  dealers  and  consumers  that  it  was 
thought  that  there  was  something  in  the  climate, 
the  soil,  the  sky,  or  the  atmosphere  which  would 
prevent  the  reproduction  of  this  particular  cloth  in 
the  United  States.  Several  mills  attempted  the 
manufacture  of  alpaca  on  a  small  scale,  but  all  were 
forced  to  abandon  it  as  impracticable. 

In  1872  the  Arlington  Mills,  which  hitherto  had 
been  successfully  employed  on  plain  and  plaided 
poplins,  began  to  produce  alpaca  first  of  the  lower 
grades,  but  finally  of  fourteen  qualities.  Even  after 
the  goods  were  satisfactorily  manufactured,  it  was 
difficult  to  put  them  on  the  market.  Merchants 
were  accustomed  to  ordering  their  alpacas  from 
England  and  were  reluctant  to  believe  that  they 
could  be  produced  anywhere  else.  There  was  a 
similar  narrow  prejudice  among  their  customers. 
One  of  the  first  sales  of  the  Arlington  alpacas  was 
to  the  late  Eben  D.  Jordan,  founder  of  the  firm  of 
Jordan,  Marsh  &  Company,  of  Boston,  who  followed 
his  experiment  with  large  orders. 

Mr.  Jordan  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 
progressive  merchants  of  his  time.  His  breadth 
of  view  and  the  steady  development  of  the  American 
textile  manufacture  are  both  very  interestingly  re- 
flected in  this  statement  by  Mr.  Jordan  in  the 
Boston  'Transcript  of  March  3,  1869: 

The  firm  has  now  been  in  business  more  than  eighteen 
years.  When  they  began,  there  were  but  one  or  two 
articles  outside  the  plain  cotton  fabrics  in  their  trade  that 
were  not  obtained  from  abroad  ;  now  but  one-tenth  of  their 
entire  stock  yearly  sold  passes  through  the  custom  house, 
and  that  is  composed  of  the  highest  range  of  goods  not 

79 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

sought  for  by  the  people  at  large.  Mr.  Jordan's  experience, 
gathered  from  repeated  visits  to  distant  markets,  leads  him 
to  confidently  believe  that  ere  long  America  will  depend 
entirely  upon  her  own  industry  to  clothe  the  masses  of  her 
people,  and  eventually  will  command  her  share  of  the  trade 
of  the  world. 

A  large  part  of  this  prophecy  has  already  been 
abundantly  verified.  America  now  out  of  her  own 
industry  does  clothe  the  masses  of  her  people.  In 
the  Centennial  Exposition  of  1876  at  Philadelphia, 
the  Arlington  Mills  presented  an  exhibit  of  its  dress 
goods  —  the  only  such  exhibit,  with  one  exception, 
made  by  any  American  establishment.  These  goods 
won  the  outspoken  admiration  of  foreign  visitors 
and  secured  an  award  from  the  judges  "  for  a  very 
superior  collection  of  black  alpacas,  brilliantines, 
figured  mohairs,  and  Roubaix  poplins,  all  first-class 
goods  of  their  kind,  very  uniform  in  width,  color, 
and  finish,  and  being  of  recent  introduction  reflect 
great  credit  on  the  manufacturers."  This  victory 
was  the  result  of  a  high  and  honorable  ambition  and 
of  iron  perseverance,  a  liberal  expenditure  of  money 
in  well-considered  experiments,  and  the  most  precise 
technical  skill. 

Yet  scarcely  had  these  splendid  results  been 
accomplished  than  fickle  fashion  began  to  abandon 
the  lustrous,  hard-finished  fabrics  for  the  modern 
dress  goods  described  in  a  preceding  chapter.  Here 
again  the  Arlington  management  was  quick  to 
recognize  and  meet  the  change  by  the  designing  of 
new  fabrics,  the  installation  of  new  and  expensive 
machinery,  and  the  introduction  of  new  but  successful 
processes  of  manufacturing. 
80 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

All  these  things,  however,  would  not  avail  with- 
out adequate  tariff  protection,  to  cover  the  difference 
in  wage  cost  between  this  country  and  Europe. 
The  law  of  1867  did  not  contemplate  the  classes  of 
dress  goods  that  had  come  into  vogue,  and  did  not 
give  this  adequate  protection  to  the  newer  fabrics. 
American  manufacturers,  paying  wages  twice  as  high 
as  those  of  Great  Britain  and  three  times  as  high  as 
those  of  the  Continent,  found  overwhelming  odds 
against  them,  and  for  a  long  time  made  only  slow 
and  difficult  progress.  Thus,  the  importations  of 
dress  goods  in  the  year  1880  amounted  to  over 
68,000,000  yards,  while  the  American  production 
for  the  same  period  amounted  to  only  40,000,000 
yards.  Therefore  the  American  manufacturers 
appealed  to  the  Tariff  Commission  of  1882  for  new 
rates  of  duty  that  would  be  in  reality  protective. 
The  chief  spokesman  for  the  American  industry 
on  this  occasion  was  Mr.  William  Whitman,  then 
Treasurer  and  now  President  of  the  Arlington 
Mills. 

The  Tariff  Commission,  while  recommending  a 
reduction  of  rates  on  other  wool  manufactures,  pro- 
posed to  Congress  a  new  clause  covering  all-wool 
merino  dress  goods  in  a  way  that  promised  to  en- 
courage their  production  here.  But  Congress  did 
not  accept  the  suggestion  and  reduced  the  duty  as 
fixed  by  the  Commission  to  a  figure  that  proved 
altogether  inadequate.  Under  the  tariff  of  1883 
our  importations  of  dress  goods  increased  steadily 
from  a  foreign  valuation  of  $  15,349,000  in  1884  to 
a  foreign  valuation  of  $19,793,253  in  1889.  Again, 
81 


EVOLUTION  OF  DRESS  GOODS  INDUSTRY 

in  the  tariff  revision  of  1890,  the  American  manu- 
facturers appeared  before  Congress  and  asked  for 
adequate  protection  not  only  for  all-wool  but  for 
the  cotton  warp  dress  goods  that  were  increasing 
in  importance.  Mr.  Whitman  was  this  time  also 
the  champion  of  the  American  industry,  and  the 
increased  protection  which  he  sought  was  granted 
by  the  national  lawmakers. 

The  art  of  making  dress  goods  is  one  of  the  most 
uncertain  and  hazardous  of  industries,  and  long-con- 
tinued success  in  this  art  is  most  difficult  of  attain- 
ment. Sometimes  it  will  be  plaided  styles  that  are 
"  all  the  rage  "  ;  then  stripes,  then  fancy  weaves  in 
small  figures ;  then  brocades  in  large  figures  requir- 
ing Jacquard  looms  ;  sometimes  plain  weaves,  some- 
times narrow  twills,  and  sometimes  wider  ones,  called 
serges.  Sometimes  the  demand  is  for  lustrous  goods; 
sometimes  for  fabrics  of  a  dead  finish.  So  the  im- 
perative kaleidoscope  of  fashion  turns  and  turns, 
and  the  successful  manufacturers  of  to-day  must  have 
the  power  not  only  to  recognize  but  to  anticipate 
these  ever-changing  demands  upon  their  technical 
ingenuity  and  financial  resources.  Need  there  be 
wonder  that  many  fail  and  few  succeed? 


82 


THE  MERCERIZING  PROCESS 


IN  a  previous  chapter  we  have  referred  to  the 
extensive  application  in  the  Arlington  Mills  of  the 
process  known  as  mercerizing.  It  has  come  to  be 
a  great  and  valuable  factor  in  modern  textile  manu- 
facturing. The  article  of  commerce  that  is  known 
as  "  mercerized  cotton  "  is  a  silk-like  product 
resulting  from  the  saturation  of  tightly  stretched 
cotton  yarns  or  cotton  cloth  with  a  solution  of 
caustic  soda,  the  yarn  or  cloth,  while  still  tightly 
stretched,  having  the  alkali  washed  out  with  water. 

The  process  is  called  "mercerizing"  because  in 
its  chemical  aspects  it  was  originated  by  one  John 
Mercer,  an  Englishman,  who  took  out  a  British 
patent  on  October  24,  1850,  for  a  method  of  sub- 
jecting vegetable  fibres  and  fibrous  materials,  cotton, 
flax,  etc.,  to  the  action  of  caustic  soda,  caustic  potash, 
sulphuric  acid,  or  chloride  of  zinc,  and  of  washing 
the  material  with  water  or  acidulated  water.  But 
Mercer  did  not  realize  the  value  of  the  mechanical 
expedient  of  having  the  yarn  or  cloth  tightly 
stretched  during  these  operations,  nor  did  he  dis- 
cover that  only  caustic  soda  and  caustic  potash  are 
capable  of  producing  the  desired  silky  lustre,  and 
that  cotton  and  flax  are  the  only  vegetable  fibres 
that  admit  of  the  successful  application  of  this 
process. 

These  vital  details  were  left  to  be  developed  by 
Horace  Arthur  Lowe,  an  English  chemist,  whose 
83 


THE     MERCERIZING     PROCESS 

patent  bore  date  of  March  21,  1890.  It  is  a 
pathetic  fact  that  Lowe  never  received  any  advantage 
from  his  discovery.  Like  so  many  other  originators 
of  valuable  processes  or  devices,  he  failed  to  enlist 
the  co-operation  of  the  energy  and  capital  of  an 
enterprising  manufacturer.  He  did  not  even  receive 
encouragement  enough  to  enable  him  to  keep  his 
patent  alive  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  he  never 
even  applied  for  a  patent  to  secure  his  invention  in 
the  United  States. 

Meanwhile  the  enlarged  use  and  better  under- 
standing of  the  long,  fine  fibres  of  Sea  Island  and 
Egyptian  cotton,  especially  adapted  to  the  mercer- 
izing process,  and  a  reduction  in  the  cost  of  caustic 
soda  brought  nearer  the  time  when  the  processes  of 
Mercer  and  Lowe  could  be  made  commercially 
successfully.  On  March  4,  1896,  Richard  Thomas 
and  Emmanuel  Prevost,  proprietors  of  dye  works 
in  Crefeld,  Germany,  secured  a  German  patent  for 
what  purported  to  be  an  improvement  on  John 
Mercer's  original  process  by  keeping  the  yarn  or 
cloth  under  tension  until  after  it  had  been  washed. 
Beyond  this  purely  mechanical  advantage,  Thomas 
and  Prevost  gave  no  indication  that  they  regarded 
their  patent  as  anything  more  than  co-extensive 
with  Mercer's,  and  they  clearly  declared  that  it  was 
applicable  to  all  vegetable  fibres  and  could  be  prac- 
tised as  successfully  with  sulphuric  acid  and  chloride 
of  zinc  as  with  caustic  alkali.  When  they  sought  a 
patent  in  Great  Britain  they  were  met  on  November 
30,  1896,  by  opposition  from  Lowe  and  were  de- 
feated, or  rather  were  adjudged  to  be  entitled  to  a 
84 


THE     MERCERIZING     PROCESS 

patent  only  on  condition  of  omitting  all  reference  to 
alkaline  lye.  Their  British  application  was  conse- 
quently abandoned,  and  the  German  Patent  Office, 
on  June  9,  1898,  adjudged  void  their  patent  of 
March  4,  1896,  on  the  ground  of  its  anticipation  by 
Lowe's  patent. 

Thomas  and  Prevost,  however,  prepared  to  make 
a  hard  fight  for  what  they  regarded  as  their  exclu- 
sive rights  under  patents  granted  to  them  on  March 
15,  1898,  in  the  United  States.  The  officials  of 
our  Patent  Office  had  overlooked  the  Lowe  patent, 
and  this  consequently  had  not  been  cited  as  a  refer- 
ence in  America.  Thomas,  Prevost,  and  their 
associates  brought  suit  upon  their  American  patents 
against  three  important  manufacturing  establish- 
ments, one  of  which  was  the  Arlington  Mills. 
Though  the  Arlington  management  was  invited  to 
join  in  the  mercerizing  monopoly  under  these 
patents,  and  was  given  an  opportunity,  with  a  few 
other  concerns,  to  turn  the  mercerizing  process  to 
exclusive  account,  it  determined  to  stand  aloof  from 
the  monopoly  and  to  fight  its  pretensions  in  the 
courts. 

The  litigation  was  begun  in  the  year  1900.  The 
case  of  the  defence  was  complex  and  difficult.  It 
was  necessary  to  prove  that  there  was  no  merchant- 
able cotton  which,  when  manufactured  into  yarn  or 
cloth  and  then  subjected  to  the  process  described  in 
Lowe's  patent,  would  fail  to  develop  and  manifest  a 
silky  lustre  of  such  a  character  that  the  differences 
between  the  effects  thus  produced  on  different  grades 
of  cotton  were  merely  differences  of  degree. 

85 


THE     MERCERIZING     PROCESS 

Counsel  for  the  Arlington  Mills  and  the  other 
establishments  interested  were  forced  to  conduct  a 
scientific  investigation  of  the  nature  of  silky  lustre 
and  a  searching  examination  of  the  history  of 
mercerization. 

But  the  courage  of  the  Arlington  management  in 
standing  out  with  a  few  other  concerns  against  the 
aggressive  monopoly  was  rewarded  when,  on  August 
7,  1906,  Judge  Francis  C.  Lowell,  in  the  Circuit 
Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District  of 
Massachusetts,  held  that  in  view  of  Lowe's  British 
patent  the  Thomas  and  Prevost  patents  were 
invalid.  The  complainants  did  not  appeal  from 
this  judgment,  but  after  some  delay  finally  submitted 
to  a  dismissal  of  all  their  suits. 

In  the  uncertain  years  when  the  decision  of  the 
court  was  pending,  the  Arlington  Mills  bound 
themselves  by  formal  contract  to  protect  their  cus- 
tomers against  the  arrogant  claims  of  the  monopoly. 
This  step  was  rendered  necessary  by  the  fact  that 
the  concern  which  held  by  mesne  assignments  the 
professedly  exclusive  rights  under  the  Thomas  and 
-Prevost  patents  in  the  United  States,  not  content  in 
instituting  suits  against  the  Arlington  Mills  and 
their  associates,  went  to  the  extraordinary  length  of 
threatening  to  prosecute  the  purchasers  of  mercerized 
goods  from  the  Arlington  Mills  and  other  com- 
panies. A  circular  containing  this  threat  was  widely 
issued  to  the  trade.  To  this  menace  the  Arlington 
Mills,  on  the  advice  of  its  counsel,  replied  that  the 
patents  were  for  processes  and  had  nothing  to  do 
with  products,  and  that  it  was  only  the  manufacturer 
86 


THE     MERCERIZING     PROCESS 

and  not  the  purchaser  who  could  be  made  liable  for 
mercerizing  under  tension  if  the  validity  of  the 
patents  were  maintained. 

Nevertheless,  the  monopoly  proceeded  in  its 
efforts  to  frighten  the  possible  purchasers  of  the 
mercerized  goods,  and  the  Arlington  Mills  met  this 
undertaking  by  binding  themselves  in  a  formal  con- 
tract to  protect  their  customers  against  any  liability. 
This  proved  acceptable  in  all  but  a  few  cases,  and 
the  monopoly  failed  to  exercise  any  important, 
terrifying  effect  until  its  power  was  forever  broken 
by  the  decision  of  the  Federal  Court.  This  de- 
cision, won  after  a  long  and  arduous  contest,  has 
proved  to  be  of  very  great  economic  significance, 
for  the  mercerizing  process  has  now  become  estab- 
lished all  over  the  United  States,  and  the  benefits 
of  the  process  have  accrued  to  all  manufacturers 
who  have  desired  to  undertake  it  and  to  the  public 
at  large. 


IMPROVED  CONDITIONS  IN 
MODERN  MILLS 


of  the  manufacturing  concerns  represented 
by  William  Whitman  &  Company,  whose  work  has 
been  described  in  the  preceding  chapters,  are  dis- 
tinctively modern  mills  in  all  the  characteristics  of 
their  equipment  and  construction.  In  the  Arlington 
Mills,  the  Manomet  Mills,  the  Nonquitt  Spinning 
Company,  the  Nashawena  Company,  The  Eddystone 
Manufacturing  Company,  and  the  others  mentioned, 
the  health  and  comfort  of  the  operatives  are  very 
carefully  considered,  both  because  these  precautions 
are  the  rightful  due  of  the  working  people,  and 
because  an  enlightened  self-interest  to-day  demands 
health  and  comfort  as  essential  to  the  highest  indus- 
trial efficiency.  The  mills  are  all  amply,  but  not 
excessively,  heated  when  heat  is  necessary,  and  are 
ventilated  with  scientific  thoroughness.  The  most 
improved  processes  of  sanitation  and  hygiene  are 
embodied  everywhere.  The  Eddystone  Manufac- 
turing Company  has  groups  of  model  dwellings,  and 
the  environment  of  these  dwellings  and  of  the  mills 
themselves  is  made  as  attractive  as  possible. 

The  lot  of  the  mill  operatives  in  these  modern 
structures  is  vastly  superior  to  the  condition  of  the 
same  classes  of  workers  a  half  century  or  even  fewer 
years  ago.  Once  textile  operatives  in  this  country 
worked  thirteen  hours  a  day,  or  seventy-eight  hours 
88 


IMPROVED     CONDITIONS     IN     MODERN     MILLS 

a  week.  These  were  hard,  long  days,  spent  often 
in  poorly  lighted,  poorly  ventilated  buildings.  All 
these  things  have  been  wonderfully  changed  for  the 
better  in  recent  years  by  regulation  of  law,  in  part, 
but  still  more  by  the  voluntary  efforts  of  liberal  and 
far-seeing  manufacturers.  In  Massachusetts  the 
hours  of  labor  for  women  and  children  in  the  mills 
have  been  gradually  reduced  until  the  limit  is  set 
at  fifty-six  hours  a  week,  in  a  law  which  has  just 
become  effective. 

One  interesting  beneficent  development  of  the 
textile  industry,  in  which  the  Arlington  Mills  were 
the  pioneers,  was  the  weekly  payment  of  operatives, 
a  procedure  now,  and  for  a  long  time  past,  required 
by  the  laws  of  Massachusetts.  Until  the  year  1877 
the  Arlington  Mills,  like  other  manufacturing  con- 
cerns, had  followed  the  practice  of  paying  their  em- 
ployees once  a  month,  but  Mr.  Charles  Wainwright, 
then  and  now  the  paymaster  of  the  Arlington  Mills, 
became  impressed  with  the  practical  advantages  that 
would  result  from  a  system  of  more  frequent  pay- 
ments, and  he  brought  the  subject  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  treasurer,  urging  that  operatives  who 
are  paid  only  once  a  month  are  compelled  to 
purchase  their  necessary  supplies  on  credit,  and  are 
thereby  tempted,  and  indeed  often  forced,  to  incur 
a  large  indebtedness.  At  first  the  experiment  was 
adopted,  on  July  i,  1877,  of  paying  every  two 
weeks.  The  system  proved  so  satisfactory  that  at 
the  end  of  1877  a  plan  of  weekly  payments  was 
substituted  for  it,  and  this  has  ever  since  been  the 
practice  of  the  Arlington  Mills.  This  was  the 
89 


IMPROVED     CONDITIONS     IN     MODERN     MILLS 

first  corporation  of  any  importance  in  Massachu- 
setts to  adopt  the  progressive  and  helpful  policy 
which  eight  years  later  was  made  compulsory  on  all 
manufacturing  establishments  in  Massachusetts  by 
the  General  Court. 


90 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Alpacas 78 

American  Institute  Exhibition 77 

Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Company 75 

Arlington  Mills,  care  of  employees 88 

Arlington  Mills,  combed  cotton  yarn  specialties       .      .      .      .  53 

Arlington  Mills,  combed  yarns 50 

Arlington  Mills,  commission  combing 41 

Arlington  Mills,  early  dress  goods 77 

Arlington  Mills,  fancy  colored  yarns 36 

Arlington  Mills,  naphtha  solvent  process .      .  39 

Arlington  Mills,  officers  and  directors 24 

Arlington  Mills,  pioneers  in  mercerizing 51 

Arlington  Mills,  pioneers  in  worsted  fabrics 25 

Arlington  Mills,  tops 37 

Arlington  Mills,  victors  in  mercerizing  litigation      ....  86 

Arlington  Mills,  worsted  yarn  specialties 35 

Automobile  cloths 32 

Boston  Transcript,  quoted 79 

Bradford  manufacturers,  memorial  of 33 

Bradlee,  Arthur  T 1 1 

Bunting 73 

Calhoun  Mills 70 

Calico  printing,  historical  sketch  of      .  .    . 57 

Calico  printing  in  Great  Britain 59 

Calico  printing  in  India 59 

Calico  printing,  Pliny's  account  of,  in  Egypt 58 

Calicut,  first  source  of  calico 57 

Centennial  Exposition  of  1876 80 

Cloth,  output  of 21 

Coburgs 77 

Combed  yarns,  uses  of 50 

Combing  wools 26 

91 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Commission  combing 41 

Consumption  of  wool  and  cotton 22 

Cotton  and  silk  goods 67 

Cotton,  combed  yarns,  uses  of '5° 

Cotton,  consumption  of 22 

Cotton,  Egyptian 17 

Cotton,  Egyptian,  importation  of 16 

Cotton  mills,  New  Bedford  group  (map) 72 

Cotton,  Northern  yarns 46 

Cotton,  Peruvian 17 

Cotton,  Peruvian,  importation  of 16 

Cotton  producing  area  of  the  United  States 14 

Cotton  production  of  world 15 

Cotton,  Sea  Island 17 

Cotton,  Sea  Island,  crops  and  movement  of 1 6 

Cotton,  Southern  yarns 45 

Cotton,  Upland 17 

Cotton  Yarn  Department 45 

Cottons,  the  principal 17 

Courtis,  William 74 

Cross-dyed  fabrics 30 

Cutting-up  trade 27 

Delaines,  mousselaine 74 

Departments  of  business 22 

Dress  Goods  Department 25 

Dress  goods  industry,  evolution  of  American 73 

Dress  goods,  in  tariff 81 

Dress  goods,  specialties  for  the  trade 31 

Dress  goods,  Staples  and  Fancies 28 

Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company,  model  dwellings  ...  88 

Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company,  officers  and  directors      .  56 

Eddystone  Manufacturing  Company,  printed  goods       .      .      .  57 

Egyptian  cotton 17 

Egyptian  cotton,  importation  of 16 

Employees,  14,000  in  number 20 

Evolution  of  American  dress  goods  industry 73 

Exposition,  Centennial,  of  I  876 80 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Fancies,  dress  goods 28 

Fancy  colored  yarns 36 

Farr  Alpaca  Company 78 

Firm,  members  of,  William  Whitman  &  Company       ...  1 1 

Fitch,  Louis  H ..ii 

Gray  Goods  Department '.      .      .      .  65 

Hamilton  Manufacturing  Company 75 

Hamilton  Woolen  Company 75 

Hartshorne,  William   D.,  researches  in  hygroscopic  qualities 

of  wool 40 

Hayes,  Dr.  John  L 73 

Hours  of  labor  in  mills 88 

Hygroscopic  qualities  of  wool 40 

Improved  conditions  in  modern  mills 88 

Jordan,  Eben  D .79 

Linings 31 

Lowe,  Horace  Arthur,  English  chemist   .     .     .     .     .     .     .  83 

Lowell,  Judge  Francis  C.,  decision  in  mercerizing  litigation   .  86 

Manchester  Mills 75 

Manomet  Mills,  care  of  employees           88 

Manomet  Mills,  combed  yarn  specialties 48 

Manomet  Mills,  officers  and  directors 44 

Marland,  John 74 

Mercerizing  litigation  in  America •  .      .  85 

Mercerizing  litigation  in  England 84 

Mercerizing,  the  process 83 

Mercer,  John,  inventor 83 

Modern  mills,  improved  conditions 88 

Morrill  tariff 76 

Mousselaine  delaines 74 

Naphtha  solvent  process 39 

Nashawena  Mills,  care  of  employees 88 

Nashawena  Mills,  fabrics 65 

Nashawena  Mills,  officers  and  directors 64 

93 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Nashawena  Mills,  silk  and  cotton  goods 67 

Nashawena  Mills,  special  contract  work 70 

New  Bedford,  favorable  conditions  for  textile  manufacture      .  47 

New  Bedford,  group  of  mills  (map) .      .  72 

Nonquitt  Spinning  Company,  care  of  employees      ....  88 

Nonquitt  Spinning  Company,  officers  and  directors       ...  55 

Nonquitt  Spinning  Company,  specialties 49 

Northern  yarns 46 

Output  of  cloth 21 

Pacific  Mills 75,  77 

Peruvian  cotton 17 

Peruvian  cotton,  importation  of 16 

Piece-dyed  fabrics .29 

Prevost,  Emmanuel 84 

Printed  Goods  Department 57 

Ready-to-wear  garments 26 

Sea  Island  Cotton 1 6,  17 

Selling  agents,  William  Whitman  &  Company,  for  what  mills  I  8 

Silk  and  cotton  goods .67 

Silk,  description  of 68 

Simpson-Eddystone  fabrics   .      . 62 

Simpson,  William,  Sr 57 

Southern  yarns 45 

Specialization <ji 

Staples,  dress  goods 28 

Tariff,  Morrill 76 

Tariff  of  1 867 81 

Tariff  revision  of  i  890 82 

Thomas,  Richard 84 

Tops  defined 22 

Tops,  manufacture  of 77 

Tops,  f '  regain  " 41 

Transcript,  Boston,  quoted 79 

United  States,  cotton  producing  area  of 14 

United  States,  wool  production  of 12 

Upland  cotton \j 

94 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Wainwright,  Charles 89 

Washington  Mills 77 

Webster,  William  E 76 

Weekly  payments  in  mills 89 

Whitman,  Malcolm  D 1 1 

Whitman,  William 11,  81 

Whitman,  William,  Jr 1 1 

.Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  Cotton  Yarn  Department  .  45 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  Dress  Goods  Department  .  25 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  Gray  Goods  Department  .  65 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  members  of  firm  ...  1 1 
Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  mills  for  which  sole  selling 

agents 1 8 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  New  Bedford  group  of 

mills  (map) 72 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  organization  of  business  .  22 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  policy  of  firm  .  .  .  .  19 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  Printed  Goods  Department  57 

Whitman,  William,  &  Company,  Worsted  Yarn  Department  33 

Wool,  consumption  of 22 

Wool,  hygroscopic  qualities  of 40 

Wool  production  of  the  United  States 12 

Wool  production  of  the  world 13 

Wools,  combing 26 

World,  wool  production  of 13 

World's  cotton  production 15 

Worsted  Yarn  Department 33 

Worsted  yarn  specialties 35 

Worsted  yarns 33 

Yarn-dyed  fabrics 30 


95 


